


A Place For Everything and Everything In Its Place

by Lil_Broad_Abroad



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe, Dimension Travel, Dystopia, F/M, Macro/Micro, Many Worlds Theory, Minigirl, Size Difference, Slow Burn, oof
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-22
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:53:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 31,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22355152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lil_Broad_Abroad/pseuds/Lil_Broad_Abroad
Summary: Nora had barely been getting by in the post-apocalyptic wasteland of the former United States until a random encounter dumped her in a world far bigger than her own. Trapped with an equally giant jerk, she has to decide if a life of stability and comfort that she's searched for all of her life is worth giving up her freedom.
Comments: 23
Kudos: 130





	1. Chapter 1

The first coherent thought that Nora had upon waking was that any second, her head was going to explode.

The cold metal floor stung her face as she came to. She tried to sit up but her limbs felt heavy and useless and there was a roiling in her stomach, warning her that she was going to puke. Her head spun as she forced herself to her hands and knees, coughing and retching but her stomach was empty. After a moment, she took a shaky breath and ran the back of her hand over her cracked lips. Her mouth was too dry to even spit and get rid of the taste of stomach acid.

There was still a bottle of water left in her bag but as she looked around for it, her eyes wouldn't focus. All she felt was the chill of the floor under her fingers as she searched. Everything sounded muted and distorted. She was freezing and burning up at the same time. It was no use trying to remember where she had been before this. Every time she almost pieced together a thought, it was gone in an instant and she was left grasping for another. Deep breaths, she told herself. She leaned against a wall, trying to focus on breathing. She was starting to panic and panicking never did anyone any good. She took a deep breath and released it slowly, letting herself slide down to the floor. Another deep breath, then another and another.

When her vision began to clear, she tried to take stock of her situation. A brief pat down didn't reveal any obvious injuries and it seemed that no one had emptied her pockets while she had been out. Her bag was missing, and almost everything she owned with it, but it wasn’t the first time all her stuff had been stolen and it likely wouldn’t be the last. It wasn’t worth crying over. Besides, as she looked around, she noticed something much more troubling.

The room she was in was empty and utterly featureless, devoid of windows, a door, or even a light. The floor, walls, and ceiling were smooth metal and she felt unnerved by how immaculately clean the room was. It creeped her out, especially with how grubby she felt in comparison. Her hands, covered in grease and dirt, stood out against the gleaming metal and her duct-taped boots left grey scuffs on the floor. Who still bothered to clean? And how could she see with no lights or breathe with no air vents? What was a spotless, doorless metal room doing in the burned out shell of a small Georgia town and how the hell had she gotten stuck inside of it?

It took a couple of minutes but Nora pulled herself off of the floor, bracing her aching shoulder against one of the walls as the room spun around her. Even if there was nowhere to go, sitting still made her anxious. She needed to get up and moving and she needed to find a way out. With what little strength she had, she pounded the wall with a fist until it stung. She tried to yell but all she managed was a hoarse croak. Her throat had never been so dry. She swallowed and tried again. It came out a little louder than a whisper but it was an improvement. The next attempt sent her into a coughing fit until she was back on the ground. She resigned herself to resting for another minute or two- just until she caught her breath. The cell was chilly and she tucked herself into one of the corners and, wrapping her jacket around her slight frame, she pulled her knees to her chest and tried to get comfortable.

Last she could remember, she had been outside of Waycross and there hadn't been much left. A couple of hurricanes and a bad winter had seen to most of the less well-built structures and the rest had burned, probably years ago. An early summer storm had swept in before she'd made it more than ten miles out of town and with the temperatures already hotter than last year, a little rain was welcome. She had tried to soldier on but once the wind picked up and the thunder became almost constant, she had no choice but to double back and duck into an old rest area that was, by some miracle, still standing. She slipped as she ran up the front steps and hesitated before yanking open the door. It was risky, not being able to scope the place out first, but hail was banging off the metal roof and the sky was turning a sickly yellow-green color. It was this or nothing and if there were other people here, all she could do was hope that they only wanted to wait out the rain too.

Nora was starting to doze off when she heard a muffled noise from the other side of the wall. At first, she thought she had imagined it. It wouldn’t have been the first time that she had been woken up by a noise only to find that it had been a nightmare. Just to be sure, she sat very still, barely daring to breathe as she listened.

And there it was. She pressed her ear to the wall, her breath fogging up the metal as she strained to hear. There was a faint shuffling but it was impossible to tell where it was coming from.

“Hey!” She yelled, banging on the wall. “Let me out of here!” There was no reply, only silence, as the sound of movement abruptly stopped. Nora waited a few moments before yelling again. “I know someone’s there, I can hear you!”

She raised her fist to pound on the wall again but paused, chiding herself. As much as she wanted out of the cell, she had no idea where she was or how she had gotten there. There was definitely someone out there but Nora didn’t know who they were or what they wanted. Then again, taking her chances hadn't worked out so well last time, she vaguely remembered. Either way she couldn’t wait in here forever. Her supplies were gone. She had no food or water and whatever uncertainty awaited her out there was probably better than dying of thirst in here.

Just then, the entire room shifted. She was tossed backwards and off her feet with a yelp of surprise as the room pitched violently back and forth, rising and falling like a boat on a rough sea. She tried to keep herself steady but there was nothing to hang onto. She slid from one side of the cell to another and halfway up a wall before being thrown across the room to land in a heap as everything became still again.


	2. Chapter 2

Alex groaned and rolled over, feeling around on the nightstand for the source of the beeping. He had tried to sleep through it but the little metal disk was all piercing chirps and flashing lights. He snatched it up and tried to stuff it under his pillow but that only gave him another minute of respite. The longer he waited, the louder the device got- by design, it was impossible to ignore. He mentally cursed whoever came up with that idea and tried to focus on the colorful things he would say if he ever got the chance to meet them. Finally, when the pillow was barely doing anything to muffle the high pitched screeching, he gave in. He tossed the stupid thing into the corner and reached for his phone.

Five in the fucking morning.

He grabbed a shirt off of the floor, gave it a sniff and pulled it on as he shuffled towards the office. As he passed the kitchen, he stopped to turn on the coffee pot. Whoever had triggered the alarm had waited this long already, he figured, it wouldn't kill them to wait five more minutes. And coming through at this hour, they deserved to wait. Hell, if he thought he could shut the alarm up, he would have let them wait until morning.

He yawned and scratched the stubble on his face. He wasn’t awake enough yet for much of anything so he shifted from foot to foot, trying to keep his eyes open as the machine gurgled and dripped. The usual eight boring hours of a long shift had been made longer by the fact that his relief was an hour late- again- and he had only just fallen asleep before the alarm had gone off. The last thing he wanted to do was spend the rest of the night sitting at the computer but he didn’t have much of a choice. He was on call for as long as the agency paid his rent and since he didn’t want to get tossed out on his ass, he filled a mug and went to it.

The office was sparsely furnished. There was a desk, empty except for a cordless computer and a stack of papers. More papers were stuffed haphazardly into manila folders and piled on top of a small filing cabinet in the corner. At the back of the room, there was a metal pad with the same flashing blue and white lights as that damned alarm. And right where it always was in the center of the pad, there was a small box. He walked across the room to retrieve it. Part of him dared to hope it was a false alarm and, just to make sure, he gave the box a nudge with his toe.

No such luck.

With a resigned sigh, he bent down and scooped it up, trying to mentally prepare himself for what always came next. It was far too early for this shit but the sooner it was over with, the sooner he could go back to bed. With that thought in mind, Alex drained his mug and pressed down on the top, barely waiting for it to open before he dumped the contents out onto the desk.

-

There was a loud click from above her head and Nora ducked as the ceiling caved inward before springing open. She craned her neck to see what was out there but the room upended, sending her tumbling out. The air was knocked out of her as she landed hard on her back and it took a couple of seconds for everything to stop spinning. Once she felt like she wasn’t going to throw up again, she shakily got to her feet and looked around.

The room was the biggest she had ever seen. It reminded her of a football stadium that she and her parents had once stayed in when they first headed east but a stadium could have fit in here easily. There were no bleachers, no cots, no tents, no field. No people. It looked like a normal room in a normal house, just… really big. She stood there trying to make sense of what she was looking at but there were no words she could think of to explain her surroundings, only a feeling that something was very, very wrong. Everything looked vaguely familiar but foreign at the same time. She kicked at one of the strange whorls in the wooden floor when a noise behind her made her jump.

As she spun toward the sound, her eyes traveled up and up. She opened her mouth to scream but only a small, strangled noise came out. In her haste to retreat, she stumbled backwards, one of her feet catching the other and sending her crashing back to the floor. Standing over her was the biggest man she had ever seen. He must have been eighty feet tall. He towered over her, regarding her mildly as he raised a chipped white mug to his lips, pulling it back with a frown when he realized it was empty.

For a moment, her mind wouldn’t accept what she was seeing. It had to be some kind of a trick- a screen or projection or something- but after exhausting every logical explanation, she settled on the only possible conclusion. Impossible as it was, the room, the furniture, and especially the man standing over her looked big because they were big. Or rather, she was very small. She had a thousand questions all fighting for answers in her head but all she could do was stare in shocked silence. Where the hell was she? How was this even possible? What was he going to do with her? Her brain had a thousand replies to that last thought and each was more gruesome than the last.

“Stay put a minute.” The man turned suddenly and disappeared through a door. She couldn't help the whimper that escaped her as he walked away- seeing something so huge move so quickly was unnerving, like watching a building get up and walk away. Even once she was alone, Nora could only sit there for a moment, eyes wide and mouth agape.

Through the shock, she realized that this could be her only chance to get away. She got up and took a deep breath, trying to think. From what she could tell, she was on a desk but she didn't see anything that could help her get down. A quick inspection revealed that the computer was cordless; climbing wasn't an option. She inched closer to the edge and when she saw how far it was to the floor, she decided that jumping wasn’t going to happen either. It wasn’t long before she heard footsteps returning. She was out of time. There was no way down. Nowhere to go, nowhere to even hide except…

Nora hid behind the metal box that had been her prison just as the man returned. She tried to keep as still and quiet as possible but her hiding place couldn't have been more obvious. It would only be a matter of time before he found her and when he did, she needed a plan. The desk creaked and moved under her and she had to cover her mouth to suppress a panicked little noise. She waited like that for what felt like an eternity, sure that any second, a hand would reach down and grab her but nothing happened. Except for the clacking of a keyboard and her heart hammering in her chest, there was no other sound.


	3. Chapter 3

“If you’re done freaking out, can you come here so we can get this over with?” The sudden loudness of his voice startled her but she didn't move. Whatever he planned to do with her, to do to her, she didn’t intend to make it any easier.

There was silence for a few moments before a shadow fell over her and a hand bigger than her entire body came across the desk. She curled in on herself, throwing her arms over her head, but the hand didn’t close around her. Instead, it picked up the box and set it down on the other side of the desk, leaving her exposed. When he made no other move to grab her, she slowly sat up and tried to get her bearings. He was a few feet away, involved in whatever he was doing on the computer but he still dominated her entire field of vision. It was hard to comprehend how huge he was. Even sitting at the desk, he loomed over her and she'd never felt so small or helpless in her life.

Nora flinched as he reached toward her again but his hand stopped over the stack of papers that sat between them. He grabbed the top sheet. “I’m supposed to read this to you.”

She wasn’t sure what to say- she wasn’t even sure she could manage a coherent question- so she only stared. He looked over the paper for a moment and rolled his eyes before tossing it back onto the stack.

“It doesn’t matter.” He said. “It's just a bunch of bullshit to try and make you feel better. You feel like listening to that?” She shook her head but he hadn’t even waited for her answer. “Good. I don't feel like reading it.”

There were so many things that she wanted to ask but she didn't know where to begin. He turned back to the computer for a moment and Nora tried to find the nerve to speak but her conversational skills were rusty from a lack of small talk in the last few years. Each time her mouth opened, all she could manage was a pathetic, meaningless noise. When he finally looked back at her, she gave up.

“It's five in the morning and I want to go back to bed so we’re going to skip the speech.” That was fine with her. She didn’t want to hear a speech any more than he wanted to give one. All she wanted was answers.

“Here’s the gist of it.” He said. “You came through a portal that connects your world and this one. It’s a one way trip so you’re stuck here.” He shrugged his massive shoulders. “Sorry.”

-

It was the same with every new arrival that ended up on his desk. He didn’t blame them for panicking when they first saw him- if it were him down there, he would have thrown up. After six years of the same script, the same disbelief and the same questions, he felt like he was living the same day over and over, each time with a slightly different face looking up at him. There was so little variation in how these interviews went that he did them almost on autopilot these days. He read what the agency told him to read, whoever he dumped out of the box cried and asked their questions, he tried to answer them and they’d answer his without too much trouble. And then they’d be on their way. Maybe it was because he was running on no sleep that he’d been thrown off but now his usual interview routine was derailed and, rather than start over, he decided that he might as well skip the stupid script and get on to the questions.

Alex reached for his coffee and the girl scooted away from him again. He had expected that. It was one of the first things they went over in training- no sudden movements. He had given up on that after his third interview. Most of what he had learned in training- which was nothing more than a few days of sitting in a stuffy classroom watching slide-show presentations- had been useless outside of a classroom anyway. Don’t grab new arrivals, they taught. He hadn’t... until one of them almost jumped off the desk trying to run away from him. Try to speak quietly. He tried, but found it hard to talk to someone who screamed herself hoarse and wouldn’t stop. This one wasn’t screaming or crying but she did flinch every time he moved. It was annoying but he supposed it could be worse.

Once she figured out that he wasn't going to grab her, she finally managed to tear her eyes away from him. He watched her work through what he had told her as she looked around the room. “Is everything…”

“Big? Yeah.” The pamphlet provided by the agency broke the news much easier and with many more words expressing the agency’s sympathy but he didn’t see the point in sugar coating it. The faster she came to terms with the fact that she was small, the easier it would be to adjust to her new life. Personally, he thought the pamphlet was a little too positive about the whole thing. It left room for doubt. When he told her the trip was one way, he meant it. There was no going back. Her old life was gone and it was better that she learn that now and save herself the disappointment later. And the City was supposed to be pretty nice- he hadn’t heard any complaints from previous arrivals, anyway. Maybe she would like it. No work, no bills, no responsibility. It almost sounded worth what it cost to get there. Almost.

The girl was quiet for a few minutes. Alex imagined that she needed some time to process everything he’d told her. He expected her to react like all the others- crying, bargaining, shock. Instead, she took a deep breath and looked back up at him.


	4. Chapter 4

“Why is everything big? How does the portal thing work?” If she was going to get out of here, she had to figure out how she had gotten here in the first place. “How do you know there’s no way back?”

His enormous form shifted as he sat back in the chair. “I don’t know.” He said, drowning out her questions without even raising his voice. “I just do the paperwork.”

“You don’t know?” She repeated. She had woken up in a box and been told that this was her life now, stuck in some giant world. The least he could do was give her some answers.

“No, and I don’t really care.” After a moment, his frown faded and he sighed, leaning towards her again. “I don’t know how it works, okay? You give me your information, I send it off and someone from processing will come and get you. They know more than I do. They’ll answer your questions and then you get to go live somewhere with the other little refugees. You don’t have to worry about getting stepped on and I don’t have to look after you.”

“I don’t need anyone to look after me.” Why she felt compelled to argue with someone who could knock her over with a finger, she didn’t know, but she couldn’t stop herself. Part of her fear had been replaced with anger. She had spent most of her life on her own and she had done fine until now. Giant world or not, she would find a way to survive. She always had. She didn’t need help before and she didn’t need it now, especially from him.

He laughed and rose to his feet, making her stumble backwards again. “Fine. I’m going back to bed. There’s coffee in the kitchen, help yourself. I’m sure you’ll find your own way down.”

“I will!” She yelled at his back as he retreated, every one of his steps shaking the desk under her feet. The lights turned off with a click as he closed the door behind him.

And then she was alone.

She didn’t expect him to actually leave her there all night but an hour passed, then another. He wasn’t coming back. And there was still no way down. She couldn’t even stand near the edge of the desk without panicking a bit so that left little to do besides pace and think. When she had calmed down a bit, she remembered the paper he had showed her. Even from across the desk she could see the bright, bold lettering across the top: “Welcome to your new life!” For some reason, the cheerfulness of the declaration frustrated her even more. She doubted she would get any real information there but Nora tugged the sheet off of the stack and tried to read it. She didn’t get very far before she wanted to toss it off the side of the desk.

As much as she hated to admit it, the giant was right. There was nothing on the paper that he hadn’t already told her and all it did was fail to make her feel better about her situation. She couldn’t even crumple it up and throw it at him if he ever came back and, at the moment, that was the only thing that might make her feel better.

If what he said was true, she was stuck here. Forever. Any life she had before was gone. Not that she’d had much of a life to begin with. If she was being honest with herself, not that much had actually changed. She had nothing, had nowhere to go, didn’t know a single person in the world... but at least in her world, she could get down off of a damn desk. For a moment, she was torn between laughing and crying and throwing up.

Nora shucked off her jacket and pulled it over her as she laid down on the mouse pad. There had to be a way back. She wasn’t sure which was worse though- being stuck in a giant world or wandering from place to ruined place, getting her stuff stolen every couple of weeks. She tucked an arm under her head and looked way, way up at the ceiling, wondering if there was a place here for people her size, like the giant had said. She didn't think that he was lying. He was a jerk but she couldn't think of a reason why would he bother making something up if he could pick her up and drop her in a cage.

That thought made her shudder. She rolled over, the thought of him reaching down for her making her claustrophobic. He hadn’t grabbed her though. He hadn’t even touched her. In fact, it was fairly obvious that he didn’t want her here at all. That was one thing, at least, that they could agree on.

She needed to get out of here, that was all she knew for sure. Not having a plan made her restless but it was hard to plan when she had no idea where she was. She didn’t know anything about the world outside of this room. There wasn’t much of a plan that she could make now except “wait and see” but the waiting was proving to be the hard part. But, she decided, if she was going to wait, she could at least get some sleep. She pulled her knees to her chest and tried to close her eyes but her mind was still busy working out how this had happened in the first place.

The building had holes in the roof but she found a dry spot in one of the custodial areas in the back. Whoever had been there before had left a couple bottles of water and she even found a few batteries in a drawer. She stashed those in her bag and settled in to wait out the rain.

An old paperback was supporting one side of a rusted metal desk and after a while, she was bored enough to jimmy it out and flick through it. Based on the first few pages, it was some trashy romance novel that would have had a buff, shirtless man on the cover had it not been missing the front and back. She put the book into her bag as well. She felt silly keeping it but it was likely the closest thing to an escape that she’d find out here.

There didn't seem to be anyone else in the building from her brief inspection. Still, she was nervous settling in for the night somewhere where other people were likely to stop but after a couple of hours had passed and no one bothered her, Nora relaxed a little. The only sounds were the wind and the rain whipping against the windows, the dripping of water that found its way in through the roof and the rumble of thunder every few minutes. The dim light of her flashlight and the sounds of the storm were strangely peaceful and when the shouting woke her, it was morning.


	5. Chapter 5

Alex didn’t need the alarm to wake him up. He had already been awake for an hour staring at the ceiling, unable to get back to sleep despite being exhausted. Part of his brain kept nagging him every time he started to nod off, a little guilty voice saying he shouldn’t have left the girl on the desk. It wasn’t for long, he argued, pulling the sheet over his head as the sun began to creep through his blinds. Unless she intentionally decided to jump- and she didn't seem the type- she would be perfectly safe there. And the desk wasn’t that uncomfortable. He’d slept there himself plenty of times.

Maybe it had been a little harsh, leaving her there, but he hadn't been in the mood to argue with her. He certainly hadn't been prepared for an argument either. That was a first for him. All the other refugees that he had processed had been, for the most part, compliant. Whether it was out of fear or just to get the whole experience over with quicker, he didn't know but he'd never been so tempted to stuff any of them back in the little box they came in before.

He gave up at last and rolled out of bed to see if there was any coffee left. As he reheated a cup, he hoped she would be easier to deal with now that she’d had a few hours to process everything. His mood hadn’t improved much since then so he doubted that hers had, especially after how he had left her. Well, he argued, she could have had somewhere warm to sleep if she had cooperated. Hopefully, it had taught her a lesson.

He opened the door, wincing as the light came on. There was a sudden sinking feeling in his stomach as he looked around the desk. He didn’t see the girl. He nearly dumped his coffee as he searched around his feet. What if she did get down after all? There shouldn’t have been any way down- he thought he had made sure of that- but there was always a first time for everything.

“Oh fuck,” He lifted up one bare foot and then the other, making sure he hadn’t stepped on her. He carefully walked to the desk and was about to put the coffee down when he finally spotted her curled up on the mouse pad. He breathed a sigh of relief and sat down, wondering if he needed to add some whiskey to his mug to get his heart to stop hammering.

-

A loud thump woke her. It took her a minute to come around and in the haze of still being half asleep, Nora didn’t immediately remember where she was. An enormous face greeted her as she rolled over. She screamed, crawling halfway across the desk before she remembered the previous day’s events. 

“Sleep well?”

With a scowl, Nora swept her unruly hair out of her face and picked herself up. "That's not funny."

"I dunno." The desk lurched under her as he pulled his chair in. "It was kind of funny. Ready to give this another shot?"

"Will it get me out of here faster?" She asked. When he confirmed that, thankfully, it would, she grudgingly agreed. She would have agreed to almost anything to get away from him. "What do I have to do?"

“You answer a couple of easy questions.” He tapped at the keyboard and the computer lit up.

“And then?”

His attention was focused on the computer and she was about to ask again when he finally answered. “Then someone comes and takes you to processing and medical.” She made a face but before she had a chance to argue, he stopped her. “Relax. It’s only to make sure you’re not sick.”

She had been through medical screenings before. All the camps had them. This city, if it existed at all, sounded like any other camp so far. The only difference was, instead of taking in people fleeing famines and floods, this one took in people who had found themselves in another world, one where everything was huge. And instead of an overworked doctor shoving a thermometer in her mouth, there would be giant people poking at her. She felt nauseous again.

“What if I don’t want to go?” She asked at last. There was a snort of laughter above her head and Nora felt heat rise in her cheeks. “I mean it. What if I don’t go?”

The giant stopped staring at the screen long enough to look down at her. “Well, you’re not staying here.”

“Like I want to.” She scoffed. “Can’t you just let me go?”

“And get fired? No thanks.” He reached over again, picking up her jacket- still in a heap on the mouse pad- and held it out to her. She hated herself for jumping every time he moved but she couldn’t help it. His hand was bigger than she was. In her world, she could run, hide, fight but here, none of that was an option. How could she fight someone who could hold her down with a finger?


	6. Chapter 6

The look on her face as she finally snatched her jacket from him made it hard not to laugh. Were he not burned out and sleep deprived, he thought he might have liked this one. It was definitely less boring than trying to coax an interview out of someone in the middle of a panic attack. But he was tired and, right now, he wanted her out of his house.

“Look, you can tell them in processing that you prefer to take your chances on your own." He said. "But you can't get there until I send your file so can you please let me do my job?”

Whether she wanted to cooperate or not, he was going to finish this interview. He typed out a basic physical description quickly enough. Small, even for a refugee. Dark hair and eyes. Early twenties, if he had to guess. “Name?”

Instead of answering his question, she asked one of her own. "Why do I have to do this?"

“I don't know." He said. "You're just supposed to. What's your name?”

“You don't know why, other than I'm ‘supposed to’?”

At this rate, he was going to be stuck with her all day. A headache was starting behind his eyes and he was running out of patience. “Are you going to tell me your name or not?”

"Are you going to stop me if I try to leave?" The girl crossed her arms over her chest. He briefly considered dangling her by her coat a few inches off the desk until she cooperated but he resisted the urge.

Annoyed as he was, Alex had to give her some credit. She was trying to keep it together but despite her attempt at bravery, he hadn’t missed how badly she was shaking. He needed a new approach. “Come here." He said, after a moment. "Let me show you something.”

The girl didn’t move until he reached forward to turn the screen towards her. She backed away from him again and this time, he couldn’t stop himself from barking at her. “For fuck’s sake, I’m not going to grab you.”

He immediately regretted raising his voice. The sight of her cowering on the desk made him feel like an asshole. “Sorry.” He muttered. “I'm not going to hurt you. Really. Could you just come look at this?”

She composed herself and reluctantly turned to look up at the screen as he clicked through some pictures. The city looked like any other but there were things that gave away the size of the inhabitants. A soda can rose up behind a crowd in one, a group of people posed with a man who towered over them in another. Some of the objects looked slightly too big or too small and there was a colorful street paved with what looked like Legos. As he scrolled through, he glanced down at her, ready to find her reassured and cooperative but he was surprised to find tears rolling down her cheeks.

-

Everything looked so... normal. It was almost overwhelming. The lights were on, no one was dirty, people were walking around with shopping bags. They looked happy. The only memories she had of a normal life were already hazy from time. There were little things she remembered from her childhood- the playground at her school, feeding seagulls at the beach, a mall Santa with an obviously fake beard- but she had been born right as things had started falling apart. She was ten when her family left their home in San Diego and it wasn’t six months later that the ocean had claimed it.

She should have been happy. This was what she had been looking for, in a way, for almost a decade. Everything she had done, everyone she had left, it had all been in search of a place like this... Nora knew better than to think she was going to some paradise though. Even if it was as good as it looked, there was always something- she just had to figure out what it was. And maybe she had gotten used to living on her own. It had been so long since she'd been around people, except briefly. She looked at the people in the pictures again. Could she even relate to any of them?

The giant said nothing, only giving her a glance as he turned the screen back and this time, she tried her best not to move at all. It was hard. Every instinct told her to run but there was still nowhere to go and the last thing she wanted was him yelling at her again. It had been like listening to an explosion at close range. The loudness of his voice hurt her ears and she had felt his voice, even in her bones. How could he blame her for being afraid? 

“If you want-” He started, almost gently. “And if you don’t rat me out- I’ll make the rest up and we can call it a day.”

She wiped her face with a grubby sleeve while he wasn't watching. She hadn’t meant to cry and she hated herself for doing it in front of him but at least now, it seemed like he was trying to avoid looking at her. Good, she thought. Let the giant bastard be uncomfortable. “What about getting fired?”

“I won't get fired as long as you don't tell anyone.” He said. "And you're not going to tell anyone, right?"

“Who am I going to tell?” He gave her a skeptical glance but her answer must have been good enough. He tapped at the keyboard for a few minutes as she waited. Part of her wanted to know what the questions were but she would be damned if she was going to answer any of them. She inched closer, trying to read what he was typing without getting near his hands but the screen was too big. Everything was too fucking big.

Especially him. It was still unbelievable how big he was. Nora couldn’t help but stare with a horrible fascination. Even the smallest of his movements were huge to her. Every twitch of his hands set off a new wave of panic that he was going to grab her but, as usual, he mostly ignored her.

“Done.” His voice made her jump. She had been gawking at him while he worked, so lost in thought that she had almost forgotten he was alive.

“That’s it?”

“That's it. Now we wait for a pickup time." The chair creaked as he leaned back. “I was going to make some breakfast. You hungry?”

She was starving. That probably wasn’t an exaggeration. She couldn't remember the last time she'd eaten. The offer was tempting but she was wary of accepting it. She had nothing to trade for it and, in her world, nothing came for free. But she wasn’t in her world anymore, she reminded herself. He didn’t seem like he wanted anything and she knew she would regret passing up a chance to eat so finally, she nodded.

There was a deafening screech as he pushed his chair away from the desk and stood up. She craned her neck way back, almost losing her balance as she tried to see all of him. “I don’t think I’ve got a lot to choose from but you don't look like you eat that much anyway.” He placed his hand on the table but Nora only stared.

Oh no, she thought. No way. He didn’t expect her to get into his hand, did he? He must have because he rolled his eyes when she still hadn’t moved. “I’m not going to drop you.”

“I’m afraid of heights.” She blurted. It was the first excuse that came to mind. It wasn’t a lie but it was hard to tell which was more daunting- fingers almost as big as she was closing around her or the long drop to the ground.

“Close your eyes then.” He waited another few moments and when she still hadn’t moved, he withdrew his hand and turned towards the door. “Suit yourself.”

“Wait!” Her fists were wrapped tight in the sleeves of her jacket to keep her hands from shaking as he stopped. It was hard to put into words her unease about this whole situation but she tried anyway. “This is crazy. This shouldn’t even be possible. It's bad enough that I'm...” She gestured to her new stature. "But getting picked up? No way. I can't do it."

He walked the few steps back to the desk and she had to stifle a cry of surprise as he stooped down, putting himself nearly at eye level with her. “I get it.” He said. “I do.” She doubted that but for once, she didn’t argue. At the moment, she was too busy trying to keep from losing what little composure she had with his giant, billboard sized face right there in front of her. “But you’re going to have to get used to it. You're sure as hell not getting around here by walking so until they come and get you, I'm going to have to pick you up.” She opened her mouth to protest but he continued. “Yes, I am, and it's for your own good. I'm not letting you run around where you can get stepped on.”

She supposed he had a point but it didn’t make it any easier. With a whine, she gave in at last. She had to get off of this desk one way or another and if she had to end up in his hands, she preferred getting in on her own rather than letting him grab her. He lowered his hand towards her again. 

“Don’t drop me.” She said, trying her hardest to ignore her brain screaming at her that this was a mistake. 

“Whatever you say.”

Hesitantly, she walked towards his open palm. He made no move to pick her up but she was still wary. Every twitch of his hand made her fight the urge to back away. She took a deep breath to steady herself, still barely believing that she was actually doing this. With both of her hands- so absurdly small compared to his- she used the creases in his skin to pull herself up before she lost her nerve.

As soon as she was in the center of his hand, it rose into the air and Nora buried her face into his skin. She didn’t want to look. Even thinking about being so high up and in someone’s hand made her queasy again. His fingers closed around her and she almost panicked but he didn’t squeeze her. It was just as well- everything rose and fell and swayed. She felt like she could easily tumble over the side of his hand and he hadn’t even started walking yet.


	7. Chapter 7

It had been a while since he’d held one of them and even after six years, the novelty of it somehow hadn’t worn off completely. He closed his fingers around her as he walked towards the kitchen, trying to keep his hand steady- the last thing he needed was to get puked on. Alex could feel her quick little breaths against his skin where she was curled up in the center of his hand. He could feel her nails digging into his skin too. It was a weird feeling. Probably weirder for her, he thought, but feeling her slight weight, knowing she was a living, breathing person and that he could hurt her terribly without even trying… it was a sobering sensation. When he reached the table, he let her slide out. She wobbled for a moment but she pushed at his hand when he went to steady her. “See?” He said. “That wasn’t so bad.”

“Easy for you to say.” She said, pulling locks of frizzy hair out of her face. She was a mess, he realized now that he could see her in the bright kitchen light. Her hands and face- the only parts of her skin that were bare- were dirty and her hair was a dark snarl of curls as she tied it back. Her clothes were well-worn, patched and re-patched, and much too big for her. He was suddenly curious where she had come from, but not curious enough to ask.

There wasn’t much for breakfast. He didn’t usually get up in time to make any before work but there was half a loaf of bread so that would have to do. He popped a couple of pieces into the toaster and reached for a clean mug. As he poured a cup, he pretended not to notice that she was looking for a way down. There wasn’t one but he had to admit, as much as it irritated him, he kind of liked her tenacity. It was pretty clear that she was still scared but she hadn’t shut down like so many of the others. None of them had ever snapped at him and none of them had ever tried to run away. He expected the idea of being on their own in a giant world was daunting enough to stop any attempts but with her, he wasn’t so sure. He'd have to keep an eye on this one.

Arguing with someone smaller than his hand had broken up the monotony of the job, anyway. And, to his surprise, he didn’t hate it. Had she come any other day, at any other time, he might have enjoyed teasing her but he knew it wasn’t worth getting too friendly. The arrivals never stayed for more than a few hours and he generally let them work through the news on their own. There was never much of a chance to get to know any of them and it was better that way. They went on to their new lives, he got on with his and that was that.

“You want some coffee?” He asked, making her jump as he turned around. If she had been trying to look casual as she backed away from the edge, she wasn’t very convincing. Even as small as she was, he caught the rise and fall of her shoulders, the movement almost swallowed by her baggy coat.

“Do you have a cup I can lift?”

She had a point. He thought for a moment, rummaging through a couple of drawers. “What about this?” He held up a dusty shot glass. The girl shrugged again and that was good enough for him. He rinsed it out and filled it halfway with fresh coffee.

As he set her makeshift mug on the table, the toaster popped. While he wasn’t surprised that she jumped- she jumped at everything- he was a little amused when she almost climbed back into his hand. “Calm down.” He said, trying not to laugh. “It’s just the toaster.”

With an indignant huff, she pushed away from him again, patches of red flushing her tawny skin. “Shut up.” He grinned but said nothing, turning back to their breakfast. He burned his fingers a little as he dropped the toast onto the plate, spreading a generous amount of butter over both pieces before cutting off a bit that he thought looked small enough for the girl. When he came back to the table, he nudged her out of the way with the back of his free hand so he could put down the plate. She said nothing as he pushed her breakfast to the edge where she could reach it and he started in on his own.

“Alright. Let’s get our story straight.” He said around a mouthful of toast. She claimed her share, downing it so fast that he was a little worried that she might choke. “Take it easy. Anyway, I put down that you’re from Boston in case they ask.”

She brushed the crumbs from her mouth with the back of a grubby hand. “I’m from San Diego.”

He tore a piece from his own toast and pushed it towards her but she hesitated. “Oh, please. My hands are cleaner than yours.” He quipped and after a moment and another dirty look, she took it. It was a little too big, a little bigger than a clipboard, but she managed. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. If they do ask, tell them you were freaking out or something. Happens all the time.”

Just as he reached for his coffee, his phone began to buzz.

-

Nora dropped her toast, scrambling backwards as he leaned over, fishing around in his pocket. His elbow landed on the table right where she had been a moment before but he didn't seem to notice. He only looked at the screen and got to his feet again. “Looks like your ride is on its way.”

He walked around the kitchen as he listened. There wasn't much to be gleaned from his side of the conversation besides a “yeah” or “uh huh” but after a minute, he stopped pacing. “What? You're kidding.” He looked back at her. “No, you have to come get her.”

Her stomach flipped as he argued with the person on the other end of the phone. “She can’t stay here.” He went on, his voice getting louder until it was almost uncomfortable. “I don’t have anything here for her and I have to work tonight. What am I supposed to do?” There was no need to hear the rest of the argument, she could guess what it meant.

He hung up and dropped into the chair with a groan. “There’s a flu going around in processing. It’s nothing serious but they don’t want it to spread so they’re not taking new arrivals right now.” With a grimace, he added, “Or for the next few days.”

“Days?” She repeated. “I can’t stay here for a few days.”

Above her head, there was a snort of dry laughter. “Well, they’re not coming so get comfortable.”

Every sarcastic reply died on her lips. A few days, she thought. A few days of being picked up, of being mocked and pushed around by a jerk the size of a skyscraper, of sleeping on a mouse pad or wherever he decided to leave her. She still wasn't sure that she wanted to go to the city but it was looking better now that she was faced with the prospect of being stuck with him.

In either world, this city was probably her best chance at a normal life, whatever that was. Phoenix, Dallas, Baton Rouge and all the little towns in between- she had put her hopes on each of them and had been disappointed every time. If she had never come here, Atlanta would have been her next stop but for all she knew, it could have fallen apart. Just like everywhere else. This place obviously hadn’t suffered the same fate as her world. There was food, electricity, clean water. And coffee. God, the coffee was good. It had been forever since she’d had coffee. Or real sleep. Or enough to eat. This was the first place with any kind of stability that she’d seen since she was a kid. What did she have to lose?

Only her freedom, she thought. There was still a spark of doubt in the back of her mind. What if it wasn't all it was cracked up to be? What if she hated it? Would they let her leave? Somehow, she doubted it. At least now, she had some time to decide. For better or for worse, getting away now could be her only shot at keeping any kind of control of her life. Of course, there was still no way off the table, especially while he was watching her. 

He sighed, letting his phone clatter to the table. Nora flinched as it landed a few feet away from her but she managed to stay put this time. “I've gotta figure something out before tonight. I have to work.”

“This isn’t your job?”

“Part time.” He said. “The agency pays me a little to do the orientations and I get to live here pretty much rent free but it's not enough to pay the bills. I’ve gotta find someone to cover for me.”

“You could leave me here.” She offered. If she could survive nine years hopping from town to town, she could live through a few hours alone on a desk. Then, once he was gone, she would find a way down. Even if she didn’t, it would give her time to think without worrying about him grabbing her. 

“Nice try.” He said with a wry smile. He reached for the piece of toast she had dropped and popped it in his mouth. “Entry points- that's what this place is- aren’t meant to be long term for you guys.” He explained. “I'm not exactly set up to have you here for more than a few hours. And I’m definitely not set up to have you at work either.”

“So, what are we supposed to do?”

He shrugged. “Let’s hope someone needs the extra hours this month. Until then-” He got back to his feet and one of his hands fell toward her, landing palm up a few steps away. “I'm going to try and get some sleep. Since you’re sticking around, you’re coming too.”

It was bad enough getting into his hand once and she was in no hurry to do it again. Nora took a couple of steps away from him. The giant didn’t grab her as she retreated but he didn’t withdraw his hand either. “Can’t I stay here?” She whined. “It’s not like I can get down.”


	8. Chapter 8

Maybe she was as clever as she thought she was but he had been doing this for a long time. Alex didn’t think she was stupid. In fact, he thought that she was probably too smart for her own good and if he wasn’t careful, he’d end up having to explain to the investigators how he had accidentally stepped on her. Of course she would try and get away. He could see the determination in her face. He didn't think that she would jump off the table but it was only a matter of time until she tried something stupid.

“Well, I’m not taking any chances.” She didn’t move. Neither did he.

This was getting old.

“Look, we’re stuck together for the next however many days. I don’t like it any more than you do but we're going to have to deal with it. I’ve only got a couple hours to sleep and I'm not going to waste them worrying about you running off. You can either get on yourself or I can pick you up. Your choice.” When she didn't move, he helped her make up her mind, sliding his hand closer toward her.

“Give me a second, would you?” One of her boots bounced off of his hand but he barely felt it. Even so, he didn’t have the patience for this right now- rules be damned. His hand shot out, his fingers curling around her and lifting her off the table before she could even think about running. She shrieked as he brought her up to his face, her fists beating on his knuckles. Every curse he’d ever heard, and some he hadn’t, poured out of her as she tried to wiggle out of his grip.

“Watch it.” He warned. “You may be new to this and you’re obviously having a hard time adjusting but they won’t put up with this kind of shit in the center.” He could feel her little chest rising and falling against his fingers but besides that, she had frozen. As close as she was, close enough to make out her freckles, he could see the fear in her eyes. He wasn't going to hurt her, of course, but the faster she learned that they- that he- wouldn't put up with this, the better.

Without another word, he carried her down the hall, nudging the door to the bedroom open with a foot and nearly tripping over a pair of jeans he'd tossed on the floor. He should have cleaned up but he hadn’t expected company, let alone in his own room. While he didn’t particularly care if she thought he was a slob, he was worried about places she could hide if she managed to make a break for it. He wasn't going to be able to watch her all the time and he needed something to do with her when he couldn’t keep an eye on her, somewhere to put her where he was sure she couldn’t get away. There was the box that she had arrived in, but that was a last resort. Although, if she kept kicking him, he wouldn’t rule it out. She’d end up in quarantine anyway if she tried that with the hardasses in processing so a little time cooling off in the box wasn't the worst idea. And then he had to figure out what to do if he couldn’t get anyone to cover for him. Between his bank account and his boss, he couldn’t afford to miss another shift but it didn’t seem like he had much of a choice. He’d either have to miss work or take her with him.

Alex set her on the nightstand and pulled open the drawer, tossing the contents onto the floor. A drawer was as good a place as any. It was definitely deep enough that she couldn't climb out even if she managed to get the drawer open. He had half a mind to leave her in the empty drawer until they came to pick her up. Maybe it would finally teach her a lesson about manners but he wasn't sure the drawer would drown out her shouting. Wasn't worth it.

He tugged the case off of one of his pillows. “It’s not dirty.” He said as he folded it up and put it in the drawer. “But I don’t have anything cleaner.”

The girl said nothing. For once, it seemed, she had nothing to say. That was fine with him. “Alright." He said, reaching for her. "Pout all you want but do it in the drawer. I’m going to sleep.”

-

Nora tried to stand her ground but when his fingers pinched the back of her coat, her resolve crumbled. "Get off!" She twisted around and slapped at his fingers until he let go, dropping her a couple of inches back to the table top. “I can do it myself.”

She re-adjusted her coat with a sour look and walked past his hand to the edge of the nightstand, the drawer open below her. It wasn’t a far drop but it looked too high for her to climb out once she was in. He would probably close it once she was inside, she realized, and a sudden wave of claustrophobia came over her. As she turned to lower herself down, she stopped. “Can you leave it open?”

He squinted at her suspiciously but after a moment, he conceded. “Okay. But if you try and make a break for it, I’ll put you back in the box.”

Her only reply was a roll of her eyes as she let herself slip off the edge to drop a few feet into the drawer below. Nora managed to stand up just as everything shifted backwards. "Hey!" She yelled, trying to steady herself. "You said you'd leave it open!"

"Halfway." He said. "Take it or leave it."

His face disappeared from above her, then there was a click and most of the light went with it. It wasn’t completely dark but she had to feel around to find her way to where she would be spending the next few hours. She’d slept in worse places, she supposed. At least it was soft and warm and dry. Even if her borrowed bedding smelled like sweat and men’s shampoo, any chance to get some sleep was welcome.

Still, she didn’t relish the idea of waking up to a giant face staring at her again. By now, it was obvious that he wasn’t going to hurt her. Even when he’d squeezed her, it had only been to scare her but, even so, she still didn’t feel particularly comfortable being asleep around him. What if he stole her stuff while she was out so that she couldn’t run away? She knew that even if she were awake, she couldn't stop him and that thought sent another wave of anger roiling in the pit of her stomach. Let him try, she dared. Even if he took her shoes and every stitch of clothing she owned, she would try twice as hard to get away, just to spite him.

She sat in the darkness, knees pulled to her chest. Who was she kidding? She certainly wasn’t as brave as she thought she was. It was easy to imagine what she would do the next time he picked her up, how she’d somehow make him sorry for pushing her around. But when his face was right there, big enough that she couldn’t even see it all at once, her resolve had crumbled faster than her world had. She had always thought she was tough, a survivor. How else had she lasted so long on her own? Maybe it was just luck after all.

Nora got up, her anger and fear making it hard to sit still. There still wasn’t anywhere to go but she paced around the drawer, kicking the wall when her temper flared again. Why did she have to stop at the rest center? Why didn’t she just hide and wait for the thieves to leave? Why, why, why?

The shouting outside the window was what woke her.

She pulled on her jacket and crept over to peek out. A group of men stood in the parking lot. Two of the group were pushing around a third while the last was shaking a backpack out onto the asphalt. It was time to go. The few things she owned were shoved hastily into her own bag and she tried to be as quiet as she could as she walked toward the back exit. With any luck, she could be out the back door and into the woods alongside the highway before anyone even knew she had been there. But once she got halfway down the hallway, there was a gunshot and a metallic screech as the front door opened.

“Shit.” Nora headed back the way she had come. She had seen a side exit when she’d come in but there was a row of windows to either side. They would spot her long before she got to the woods. The yelling grew louder and she knew that her time to decide on a plan was running out. The side door it was. She hurried down a hallway, listening for the sounds of the looters but one of her boots hit a puddle and her feet went out from under her. She landed with a splash and a groan in a little pool of dirty water.

Everything was quiet as she got up and she prayed that they hadn’t heard her but the voices were headed in her direction now. “Shit shit shit.” She sprinted down the hallway, her footsteps echoing off the walls. There was no need to worry about being quiet anymore. They knew someone was here, she just hoped that she had enough of a head start to get away. She rounded a corner, slipping a little again as she rebounded off the wall and almost ran straight into one of the men she’d seen through the window.

She didn’t hear what he yelled as she ducked under his outstretched arms. A pair of double doors to her left burst open and another man came through, catching her backpack and nearly pulling her off her feet but she managed to slip out of it and keep running. She could always get more supplies later, the only thing that mattered at that moment was getting outside, getting away. The door was only twenty feet in front of her. She could make it. Fifteen feet. She could hear the crashing steps behind her. Ten feet. Five feet.

Her hands were pushing the door open when pain shot through her scalp as one of the men grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked. Her braid was long enough for her to turn into her attacker and she slammed the heel of her hand into his nose. He reeled, momentarily releasing her as he dropped to a knee but as she made another attempt to get through the door, he caught her by the ankle and she joined him on the floor.

With her other foot, she kicked at him but he was ready this time. He grabbed her other ankle but Nora kept kicking and finally made it to the threshold. As she pushed the door open with an arm, wiggling her way through the gap, she looked around for something she could wedge into the door to give her a head start. There was a shovel barely within reach. While it wouldn’t fit into the door handles, she decided that it would make a decent weapon, if only to get the man off of her.

Her fingers brushed the rusted blade of the shovel as she stretched, trying desperately to grab it even as the man tugged her back toward him. She gained an inch, he pulled her back two. Finally, she rolled onto her back, wrestling one of her feet free and aiming a kick at his nose. With a sharp crack he let go, howling as blood dripped onto her jeans. Her fingers finally closed around the handle when there was a blinding flash of light, a splitting pain behind her eyes and then nothing.


	9. Chapter 9

It wasn't his alarm that woke him a few hours later. Instead, it was a quiet, nagging noise that Alex couldn't quite place. He rolled over, trying to determine what it was until he realized that it was coming from the drawer of his nightstand. All at once, he was exhausted again when he remembered that he was stuck with an unwelcome and irritating house-guest. What was she doing in there? Probably something to make his job difficult, he figured, if the previous few hours were any indication. 

He could just make her out in the dim light as he peered in and he was ready to chide her for waking him up when he realized that she was curled up in her makeshift bed, fast asleep. Alex watched her for a minute to be sure she wasn't faking. It was incredible that someone so small could be such a pain in the ass. The whole situation wouldn't be so bad if she’d just stop being so difficult. She questioned everything, fought him on everything. Nothing could just be _easy_ with her. Well, he'd be damned if he was going to put up with it for however many days it would be until they came to get her... Then again, he didn't have much of a choice. 

She rolled over and Alex expected her to yell at him again but, to his relief, she didn’t stir. He wasn’t ready for another argument yet. He was about to go back to sleep himself but it wasn’t long before he discovered the source of the noise that had woken him up. The girl turned again, clutching the pillowcase tightly and his irritation faded. 

He had expected she would cry at some point- almost all of them did. He didn’t know whether or not to wake her. Time she was asleep was time that she wasn’t fighting him but even in the near darkness, he could see the wetness on her cheeks. Whatever she was dreaming about was obviously unpleasant. Hell, he thought, maybe she was dreaming about him. She whimpered again and he sighed. It _was_ just a few days and at least she was getting used to him by now. He would deal with it, so would she, and hopefully he wouldn't contribute too much to her nightmares. He just had to stick it out and then she would be someone else's problem. 

Alex checked his phone. None of his co-workers had returned any of his pleas to take his shift. Of course. As if he needed to make his new babysitting job any more difficult, now he really had no choice but to take her with him or lose his job. How the hell was he supposed to do that? He laid back and tried to come up with a plan. He had a jacket with a roomy front pocket but, while it would undoubtedly keep her hidden, he couldn't keep her in there for his entire shift. Once he got to the office, he would probably be okay letting her out, he decided. One of the perks of the job was that not many people came in overnight and he generally had the place to himself. As long as she stayed on the desk and he could trust her to hide if he needed her to, he didn't see how anyone would ever know. 

It was dusk by the time Alex convinced himself to get out of bed. He felt a little better but he wasn't looking forward to the long night ahead. He needed to shower and he imagined that she could use one too. As he slid the drawer out, he used the temporary quiet to get a better look. She really was filthy but she looked peaceful for once. It was a shame he had to wake her but she'd thank him for it later. At least, he hoped so.

“Rise and shine.” He said, rapping the top of the table until she began to stir. She rolled over, blinking at him until her eyes focused. This time, she jumped but didn't run. Baby steps, he thought.

“What?”

He tried to be patient. “I've got a peace offering. I’m gonna shower before work. You look like you could use one too.”

She sat up, untangling herself from the pillowcase, hair obscuring half of her face. “I’m not showering with you.” She said, her nose wrinkling.

Alex couldn't help but laugh. “Damn right you're not. I was going to run a bath in the sink, maybe clean up your clothes. If you want.”

What he could see of her face went red but he didn’t say anything. He only lowered his hand into the drawer, waiting for her to get on. “Clean up or don’t, I don’t care but I'm putting you somewhere I’m sure you won’t try and run off. Since you said you don’t want to go back in the box…” 

The girl thought for a moment before she stretched and got up, shoulders slumped in resignation as she climbed into his hand again. This time, he waited until she was settled before lifting her out.

He carried her into the bathroom, brushing aside a tube of toothpaste and a stick of deodorant before tipping her out onto the counter. This was going to be tricky. There was only a dingy curtain and a couple of feet between the shower and the sink. It was hard enough to get the girl to stop flinching every time he looked at her so he somehow doubted that seeing his big naked ass would make her feel much better. There was going to be a lot of improvising in their future, something he had always been good at, but he'd never given much thought to how to share a bathroom with someone who could fit in his hand and needed constant supervision.

“You go first.” He said. Soap, water, towel- she didn't need much more than that. The rest, he'd figure out as he went. He reached into the shower and carved off a piece of soap with a fingernail, dropping it at the side of the sink. That was one thing down, at least.

She crossed her arms, staring up at him. “Not while you're standing there.”

Alex snorted as he reached over her for the faucet. “Don’t flatter yourself, I’m not interested.” He really wasn’t. He knew that the refugees were human, just smaller, but when they were standing on his desk or sitting in his hand, he couldn’t help it. They felt like another species. Besides, even if she were his size, he still wouldn't be interested. If he had wanted someone to argue with, he would have stayed with his ex. He crouched down, rummaging through the cabinet for a clean washcloth.

Under the dirt on her face, he could see red rising in her cheeks. “I don't care if you're interested.” She snapped. “I don't need you watching me like some creep.”

He peered over the top of the counter at her. “I’m not going to watch you, calm down.” When he found something he judged clean enough, he stood back up and tossed the washcloth at her. It was bigger than a picnic blanket to her and she stumbled backwards under its weight. “You want clean clothes or not?”

After considering for a moment, she groaned and pulled the zipper down her over-sized jacket. “This sucks.”

“Got any better ideas?” She offered none but pulled her hoodie over her head, followed by a t-shirt and her patched up boots. She wobbled precariously as she yanked each of them off and tossed them aside. Alex was a little surprised at the amount of clothing piling up on the counter and how much smaller she looked as each layer came off. She really was slight, even compared to the other refugees.

“Well?” She stopped, down to just her jeans and a tank top and he realized he was staring.

“What?”

-

“Turn around or something!” It wasn’t like she was going to make a break for it while his back was turned. She wasn't stupid. It was a long, long drop onto a tile floor. Even if she did manage to get down, he would catch her before she took two steps.

He rolled his eyes but turned around anyway. “Fine. Tell me when you’re decent.”

After emptying her pockets and inspecting the contents- a depressing reminder that all she owned now was a small pile of junk- Nora quickly shucked her shirt and jeans, skinning her underwear down her thighs and tossing them all into the pile. She stood shivering on the vanity, inspecting herself in the mirror with a frown. It had been a while, at least a couple of months, since she'd seen her reflection like this. Had her ribs always shown that much? And how the hell did she get a bruise there?

The giant cleared his throat and Nora quickly grabbed the washcloth, wrapping it as best she could around her shoulders. “Okay.” She pulled her makeshift towel tighter as he turned back around. Even though she was covered from her chin to her toes by the threadbare cloth, she still felt exposed. That wasn't surprising. If he wanted, he could have her standing there naked with just a little tug.

Maybe this hadn't been such a good idea after all.

“Ten minutes.” He pinched the entire pile of clothes between two fingers and dropped them into his open palm.

“Knock first!” She called as the door shut behind him. There was no answer. For a moment she just stood there, unsure whether he would come back or not but to her relief, the door stayed closed. Nora looked at the steam coming off the water. It was the first time she had seen so much clean water in years. Almost every shower she had taken since she left home had been lukewarm at best and there had always been strict regulations on water use, especially in the camps. All the showers there were on timers and she’d never managed to get all the soap- when there was any- out of her hair before the water shut off. There weren’t any baths, either. Water scarcity had made the idea of laying around in a tub of clean, drinkable water absurd.

It seemed a sacrilege to dirty all of this water. In this world, there was plenty and a half full sink was almost nothing but it was still a foreign concept. She tried to put it out of mind. Her ten minutes of peace would be up in no time and she didn't know when she would have the chance to get clean again. Dropping the washcloth, Nora grabbed the softball sized chunk of soap and slipped into the water. Her feet barely touched the bottom of the sink but she preferred to float, she decided, when she stepped in a hardened glob of toothpaste stuck to the porcelain. The heat and the feeling of weightlessness as she floated on her back was like nothing she had ever experienced. Ten minutes would hardly be enough time, she thought. She wanted to stay here forever. Trails of dirt swirled in the water around her as she turned the soap over in her hands and worked the suds through her tangled hair.

Nora scrubbed at her skin until it was red and by the time she heard the knock at the door, all of the dirt was gone. She dunked her head underwater one last time and paddled to the edge. It was steeper than it had looked when she'd gotten in and, with a sinking feeling, she realized that it was too high. She jumped, her hands slipping on the smooth, wet surface but no matter how hard she kicked her legs, she couldn't get enough of a grip to pull herself out. The door opened a little and she swore, falling back down into the water with a splash as she tried to cover herself.

“Don’t come in!” There was an impatient noise from the other side of the door but it remained cracked. There had to be some way out of here on her own. There had to be- she'd be damned if she had to ask him for help- but every new effort ended the same way, with her spitting out soapy water. Finally, she gave up.

“I can’t get out.” She called. Nora heard a snicker from the other side of the door. “Shut up!”

“I’m coming in.” Despite her protests, the door opened. She crossed her arms over her chest but he didn’t look at her as he felt around for the plunger. There was a loud sucking from behind her and the water began to drain away, almost pulling her off her feet. When the last of it rushed around her ankles and she was left dripping and shivering, he grabbed the washcloth and dropped it down on top of her. She crawled out from under it and wrapped herself up just as he looked back down. “Better?”

Reluctantly, Nora nodded. She actually did feel better, despite the embarrassment of not even being able to get out of a stupid sink. Asking him for help was almost as bad as admitting to herself that she needed it. Her entire adult life, she had done everything herself. She had found her own food, fixed her own car, patched herself up when she needed to. Help wasn’t something she was used to and, while she had developed many skills out of necessity to keep herself alive, asking for help definitely wasn’t one of them.

She tried to hold still as he lifted her out of the sink but it wasn't easy. If she fought him, she could easily slip right out of his hand- and her towel- but she could feel the warmth of his skin through the thin fabric in a way she couldn't through her layers of clothes. It was unnerving but at least it stopped her from shivering. 

“Here.” He opened his other hand and tipped her clothes out. “You get dressed and I’ll be out in five.” 

He crossed the space between the counter and the shower in two steps, hanging a towel over the curtain rod. She turned around when she heard the sound of the shower sputtering to life. He hadn’t looked at her while she undressed so it was only fair that she did the same but even with her back turned, his reflection in the mirror was there, towering over her too. As much as she tried to look somewhere else, Nora couldn’t help but stare as he pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it aside.

When he hooked his thumbs into the waistband of his pajama pants she finally tore her eyes away, determinately looking at her feet until she heard the pull of the shower curtain as he stepped in. She could feel her cheeks burning and she tried to stop her imagination from extrapolating on the little she had actually seen.

For God’s sake, she chided herself. He was the size of a building. _And_ he was an asshole. But... she conceded that he wasn’t bad looking for someone who was eighty feet tall. He was broad shouldered and lightly muscled but with a softness that suggested it had been a while since he’d gotten any real exercise. His hair was nearly as dark as hers but unlike her- having spent much of her life outdoors in the sun- he was pale. He wasn't especially handsome but not the worst she had seen. The flush creeping up her neck as she pulled on her clothes definitely didn’t have anything to do with him, she told herself. There hadn’t been a lot of free time before now to think about… that kind of thing. Any kind of relationship prospects had gone to hell when the planet had and her lack of experience only fueled her curiosity. She had been alone too long and, giant or not, there was a naked guy behind that curtain. Nora shook her head, splattering water droplets from her hair all over the counter as she tried to set her mind to escaping instead.


	10. Chapter 10

He pulled the towel over the curtain rod and swore as he banged an elbow trying to dry off in the cramped stall. Alex was reluctant to open the curtain. Part of him dreaded what he would find when he did. He didn't hear anything. Was she stupid enough to have tried to climb down? Would he find her in a broken heap on the tile floor? _Then_ what would he do? He took a breath before pulling back the curtain with a metallic scrape.

The girl sat on the counter, tying the laces on her boots and Alex let out the breath he'd been holding. He stepped out with the towel wrapped around his waist and collected his pajamas off the floor. She glanced at him but looked away quickly, red rising in her cheeks. Nothing to say to that, he thought with an inward laugh. He'd have to remember that the next time she wouldn't shut up. But for now, he said nothing as he went to find something clean to wear.

She was combing her fingers through her hair when he came back in. Alex still couldn’t believe how much dirt had come off of her clothes. Or her, he thought as he inspected a layer of grime at the bottom of the sink. He didn’t think that he'd managed to do all that well at getting her clothes any cleaner but she seemed content for once.

“What am I supposed to do while you're working?” She asked, stepping sideways as he reached past her to grab his toothbrush. He didn’t have one in her size so he let her scoop out the toothpaste with a finger. It was better than nothing and thankfully, she didn't complain.

He shrugged and after a minute, he leaned forward to spit. “There’s a TV.” He rinsed out the sink and dried his hand on his jeans before offering it to her. This time, she only hesitated for a moment before climbing on. Maybe she was finally getting used to this after all. “As long as you hide if someone comes in, it's all yours.”

“You’re not going to lock me in a drawer or whatever?” She tried to steady herself but she seemed wary of moving too much. Alex, trying to helpful, lowered his thumb across her waist like a seat belt. At first she balked, pushing against him but he ignored her. Once he started walking, the girl realized that she was much more secure that way. She didn’t relax but she at least stopped squirming. He could feel all of her little muscles taut as a bowstring under his finger. It was a weird sensation. He never held his "guests" for very long and he had never noticed before that, as small as she was, he could feel every little movement she made. 

“Not if you don’t give me a reason to.” He tried to ignore her heart hammering under his thumb and her legs flexing against his palm. 

He headed for the door, collecting things as he went- phone from the nightstand, wallet from the counter, keys from a hook in the kitchen- before stopping to put on his jacket. He slipped one arm through and tipped her into his other hand as he finished pulling it on.

“Since I'm breaking like, three different laws right now, you're going to have to ride in here.” He lifted her to the pocket on the front and felt her chest rise and fall and the little puff of air as she sighed but she didn’t argue. “Look on the bright side.” He told her, opening the pocket with his free hand. “No one will stare at you in there.”

He didn’t catch whatever she grumbled but she grabbed the lip of the pocket anyway. He lifted his hand a bit so she could climb in but it was a little steeper than he’d judged. With a yelp of surprise, she tumbled in. Alex closed the flap and whatever else she had to say was muffled to the point that he couldn’t make it out.

He locked the door behind him, wondering how much trouble he was going to get in. He hadn’t even made it a block before he regretted his decision- and not grabbing a heavier jacket. He could feel her moving around against his chest. Even through the fabric, it tickled. Alex shifted, trying hard to resist the urge to fish her out, but he couldn’t hold still much better than his passenger could.

“Would you quit wiggling around in there?” He muttered. A man passed him on the sidewalk and he suddenly felt self conscious. Which was worse, he wondered- that people would think he was talking to himself or that he had an illegal little stowaway? Another tickle made him jump. “People are going to think I'm crazy. Knock it off.”

-

She couldn’t get comfortable. With every step he took, the huge rolling movements of his body sent her slipping back down to the bottom of the pocket. No matter how she tried to brace her legs, she had to fight her way back up again every few minutes. Besides that, it was an unsettling feeling, being pressed against the wall of his chest. Every breath made her rise and fall and when he growled at her to hold still, she could feel the vibrations of his voice in her bones.

Nora huffed and wiggled back up to a sitting position, wondering how long she was going to be stuck in here. It was dark and smelled faintly of stale cigarettes and sweat and the heat from his body only made her more claustrophobic. It reminded her of Dallas, one of the worst camps she had been to and the biggest by far. They had crowded so many people onto the astroturf field that the cots had pretty much touched. All those people in an enclosed space had made it stifling and the combined noise of thousands of people talking, breathing, snoring and crying was almost deafening. Being stuck with this giant jerk was a similar feeling. Trapped. Leaving that camp was the best thing she had ever done, and it would feel just as good leaving... she realized suddenly that she didn't know her captor's name. Not that she cared. It wouldn't matter soon anyway, regardless of where she ended up.

Feeling his heart thumping behind her creeped her out and only reinforced that oppressive, claustrophobic feeling. It didn't help either that being pressed so close against him was weirdly intimate in a way that she didn’t think she’d ever felt. That was more unnerving than the _thump thump thump_ against her back but, somehow, it was almost comforting. For the first time in years, she wasn’t alone. 

Well, physically anyway. It was hard to feel alone with someone the size of a building watching her all the time but there was still something different. In the camps, even with all of those people, she had still been alone. She realized then that talking to him was the most conversing she had done in years. Even if it wasn't pleasant conversation, it wasn't completely terrible.

She didn’t have much longer to think about it though. There was an abrupt stop, the screech of a metal door and a muted conversation. It was another ten minutes before light flooded into her hiding place, making her wince.

“Alright, coast is clear.” 

“Thank god.” She said. She was more than ready to get out of that stuffy pocket, even if it meant getting back into his hand. He dipped his fingers in but the pocket wasn't big enough for him to grab her so she waited.

"If you'd rather stay in there..." She kicked one of the digits and tried to figure out the easiest way out. There weren't many options and she ended up wrapping her arms around his index finger and letting him draw her out. 

It wasn’t nearly as secure as being in his palm though and as soon as she saw how far the drop below her was, she clung to him even tighter. She heard a snort of laughter and peeked at him, trying not to look down. 

“I told you I’m not going to drop you.” He said, lifting her to his face. All she could manage in reply was a whimper and after a shake of his head, he set her down on the desk. 

Glad to be free and able to stretch again, Nora took her time looking around as he settled into a creaky chair. What she could see of the lobby was as sparsely furnished as his house and just as aged. The tile floor was dirty and cracked in places and the front door- glass and metal with half of the security bars missing- didn’t seem to close all the way. The wallpaper was peeling and may have been white at some point but was now a pale brown. It almost reminded her of home. 

Unlike the desk she’d slept on, this one was cluttered with junk and she almost tripped over a pen as she wandered around.

“Make yourself at home. I’m on until three but I guarantee we won’t get out of here until after four.” He pointed a remote at an old television at the other end of the desk but nothing happened. He clicked a couple of times before reaching forward to give it a whack. The picture was fuzzy but it was the first time she'd seen a working television in years. Back in the camps, they had always been tuned into the news. It was all anyone had wanted to watch and by the time she set off on her own, there wasn't much left to watch at all. She vaguely remembered seeing cartoons as a kid but she couldn't name a single character. It was a luxury that she didn't miss only because she'd never had it to begin with.

The giant flipped through channels and Nora was amazed by the number of programs to choose from. A couple times, she was tempted to ask him to go back to a previous channel or stay on the current one but she didn’t particularly feel like talking. He seemed to be fine with that, leaning back in the chair until it groaned in protest. It was an easy sort of peace that she hadn't felt since she'd arrived here. Or before, for that matter. He wasn't staring at her, poking her, picking her up or otherwise annoying her. She wasn't scavenging for supplies or being chased by people who wanted hers. She could just sit and watch TV. Was this what "normal" felt like?

After a long period of silence only broken by a laugh track or a jingle from the television, her curiosity began to get the better of her. She still had so many questions. They were nagging at her, making it hard to keep her attention on the television but she couldn’t seem to make herself ask. A couple of times, she opened her mouth to get his attention but closed it again, deciding that she should just enjoy whatever time she got where he wasn’t picking on her. She couldn’t, though. There was too much she needed to know. Finally, she turned to him, trying to think of what to ask first.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> May not have gotten much writing done in quarantine but I drew [Nora](https://www.deviantart.com/lilbroadabroad/art/Nora-839419891?ga_submit_new=10%3A1587870639)

“What’s this show about?” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her inch closer. Small talk wasn't her thing. She wanted something. Well, if she wasn't going to tell him, he wasn't going to ask. Alex didn't bother looking over. Small talk wasn't his thing either and part of him hoped that if he ignored her, she would give up.

"I dunno. Some dumb sitcom."

His tactic of pretending not to notice her only worked for so long. Of course. She was irritatingly stubborn. “If it's dumb, why are you watching it?”

He sighed. “Because there's nothing better on.” Alex finally glanced down at her. "Are you going to ask whatever it is you want to ask or are you going to stand there all night?"

With a glare, she stomped back to the pad of post it notes she had been using as a seat and huffed. There, he thought. That ought to shut her up for a while. He tried to pay attention to the show but it wasn't much of a distraction for him either now. It was quieter, thankfully, but somehow, her pouting was just as bad. He could _feel_ her over there seething and once the next commercial started, he gave in.

“Any good shows from your place?" He wasn't going to apologize but he guessed some small talk wouldn't kill him. He had said he would try to be nice, hadn't he? "We could sell the idea and make a bunch of money.”

“I didn't watch a lot of TV.” She said flatly. Well, he tried. He leaned back and kicked his feet up on a dented filing cabinet.

After a couple of minutes of silence, he heard her voice again, somehow smaller than before. “Do you really not know anything about the portals? Or whatever they are?”

He didn't want to go back over this old subject again. She wasn't going home and the sooner she got that through her head, the better. Besides, he'd already told her everything he knew. Hell, if he knew how to send her back, he would have done it the second she tumbled out of that box and ruined his night. Still, he supposed it was better than arguing and if he could convince her it was pointless trying to get back, maybe she would finally drop it.

“No. I don't. Like I said, I just do the paperwork." He turned the chair towards the desk and pulled it in. “If it’ll keep you from being so grouchy, I’ll answer what I can.” She rolled her eyes but nodded. Truce. “What do you want to know?”

“How to get back through one.” She muttered. Called it, he thought with a snort.

“Can't help with that. Got anything else?”

She thought for a moment, shifting where she sat. “How long has this been happening? People… coming through?”

“A couple hundred years, give or take.” Alex wasn’t exactly sure. He didn’t think anyone knew for sure. There were people who studied it all- the history, the portals and the people themselves- but he wasn't one of them. He wasn't in this job because he was curious. He was in it for the free rent and the steady paycheck. "I think there are records from a long time ago but I wouldn't exactly call them trustworthy."

"Why not?" She asked, a spark of interest in her eyes that he hadn't seen before.

"Think about what folks from your world believed two hundred years ago. In some parts of the world, people thought you guys were bad luck." Maybe that wasn't so far off. His luck _had_ been terrible since she came. She was like his own little bad luck charm, sent especially to annoy him.

"That's stupid." She said. "If anyone has bad luck, it's us." He couldn't argue with that. He'd rather be in his position than hers any day.

“So," She continued. "They- _we_ ’ve always gone to the city?”

This line of questioning was going to get uncomfortable. He wouldn't lie to her but he suspected that she wouldn't like the answers she got. He didn't know the exact answer anyway but what he did know was that the city was a vast improvement.

“Not... exactly. The city’s sort of a recent thing. They built it like, seventy years ago.”

“So, what did people do before?” Even as she asked, he could see that she had already worked out something awful in her imagination. It probably wasn't too far from the truth either. To his relief, she seemed to know where this was going and she moved on.

“Okay.” She said. “So why is everything so much bigger?”

That was something that he really didn't know. “I don't know. No one does. It's not just you, either. Or your world. There are a bunch of them. Always this planet, just different... I dunno, versions? The only constant is that everyone comes through fun sized.”

She screwed up her face at that description. “Well, it sucks.”

Alex couldn't argue with her assessment. The girl sighed and he wished there was some kind of consolation he could offer her. Part of him- the part that wasn't jaded by nearly a decade of telling people their lives were over- did feel bad for them. Being ripped away from their families and homes and dropped in an unfamiliar place was bad enough without also having to deal with being tiny. His feelings on sugar coating hard truths hadn't changed and since nothing he could say would make the situation any better, all he could do was acknowledge that it did, indeed, suck. “Sorry, kid.”

-

“I'm not a kid.” Nora snapped. He may have had a hundred feet on her but she wasn't a child. She wasn't even sure she ever had been. Kids were supposed to play, not worry about where their next meal would come from. She could barely remember a time where she hadn't worried about that.

“Calm down.” He told her, leaning back in the chair again. The creak this time was so loud that she thought it might break. She hoped it would. Watching him spill his big, condescending ass onto the floor would have improved her mood immensely. “It's just an expression. Besides, you wouldn't tell me your name, remember? Gotta call you something.”

She guessed he had a point but she would die before she admitted it. “You never told me yours either.”

“You didn't ask.”

She hadn't. She still only thought of him as the giant asshole she was stuck with. “Fine. I'm asking.”

“It’s Alex.”

After a moment’s hesitation, she replied. “Nora.”

"Finally." She could see the ghost of a wry smile on his face. “Why couldn’t it have been that easy last night?”

“Because I was scared out of my mind.” She said, her pout softening. “And you’re a jerk.”

He laughed. “You haven’t exactly been a dream to be around either.”

She didn’t know why but his reply didn’t bother her for once. It was probably true but she didn’t care. She hadn’t asked for this, any of it. It wasn't her fault she was trapped here or that they were stuck together for the next few days. Taking it out on her wasn't going to make anything better. But she guessed that that went both ways. “Can you blame me?”

“No.” He shrugged. “Not really.”

Before the silence could linger, he pushed the chair back and stood up. “I’m starving. You wanna eat?”

Any opportunity for a meal was a welcome one and Nora accepted immediately. The distraction would give her a chance to collect her thoughts without him towering over her too and, right now, she needed it. Somehow, there were more questions now than she'd started out with. Where had people gone before the city? She had sensed his hesitation to answer that one but how bad the answer was, she could only guess.

“Don't go anywhere.” He said, startling her out of her thoughts with a finger nearly prodding her in the chest. She pushed it away but it didn’t budge until he withdrew it.

“Where am I gonna go?” She waved her hands around the desk and he spared her a suspicious glance before crossing the small office to rummage through a little fridge.

Nora watched him as he opened a box and tossed something into the microwave. God. She still hadn’t gotten used to his size. Watching something- some _one_ \- so big was morbidly fascinating. Every now and then, he looked over his shoulder to make sure she hadn't run off and she turned away, pretending to be engrossed in the television program. He should know by now that she wouldn’t run, the big dumb jerk. There was nowhere to go. She made a face once his back was turned again and tried to think about something else.

Well, at least now she knew what to call him. Alex. Alex, the big dumb jerk. He knew her name now too but whether he would use it or not, she didn't know.

The microwave dinged, making her jump and her brief moment of time to herself ended. He came back over, holding a plastic dish with his fingertips and wincing.

"Ow, fuck. That's hot." He dropped it between them and sat down with a sigh. “Well, dinner is served.”

Nora would never have described herself as picky. She'd certainly eaten worse food than this and sometimes none at all but she wasn't totally convinced that this was food. She leaned closer, the steam carrying an unfamiliar and slightly burnt smell. “What is it?”

“The only thing left in the freezer.” He leaned over it too and wrinkled his nose. “I guess I should have gone to the store.”

He poked at the greasy brown mess with a fork and gave it an experimental lick. “Oh yeah, that's pretty bad.”

Nora shrugged and rolled up her sleeves. Food was food as far as she was concerned. He stopped her with a hand as she approached the tray.

“This isn't fit for human consumption.” He declared and Nora had to stifle a squeak of protest when he tossed the whole disgusting mess into the trash can under the desk. “What? You want to eat that?”

“It's a waste of food.” She muttered.

“You should taste it before you call it food.” He said, fishing around in his pocket for his phone. “Screw it, I'm ordering a pizza.”

Pizza was one thing that she remembered well from before. It had been years since she'd had it and she couldn't remember exactly what it tasted like, only that it was good. She watched the giant- no, she corrected herself, Alex- tap at the screen for a few minutes.

“There.” He dropped his phone on the desk and leaned back. “Pizza will be here in half an hour.”

But he hadn't done anything. “You can just… get a pizza by pressing a button?”

“Not a button. A couple buttons.”

“And someone brings it to you?” Nora had so many questions about this world in general but right now, about pizza in particular.

“You didn't have pizza delivery in your world?”

She had to think for a moment. Maybe they had, she couldn't remember, but she knew that she'd never been able to have food brought to her with a couple of taps on a phone.


	12. Chapter 12

The girl leaned over his phone, inspecting it.

"There aren't any buttons."

Alex couldn't help himself. He laughed. "What are you, my grandma? Nobody's had buttons on a phone in twenty years."

That earned him a dirty look but instead of starting another argument, he tapped the screen. The light came on and she stumbled back so quickly that she almost lost her balance but Alex managed to catch her and set her back on her feet. Without so much as a 'thank you', she pushed him away. Well, she tried to. This time, he didn't budge. Instead, he nudged her out of the way and unlocked it.

"See? Touch screen." The technology in her world was probably behind his and they didn't have smartphones. He'd met refugees who had never seen a computer before. Luckily, they'd all left before he'd had to explain the internet. Her world must have at least had cell phones, he figured, since the concept seemed normal enough to her. He watched as she bent over the screen, poking at one of the icons with a finger to no effect.

"Nothing happened."

"Maybe your finger is too small for it to register." He suggested. He was actually curious now. "Try your whole hand."

This time, it worked and the music app opened. He rolled his eyes at her self-satisfied expression but flicked the screen to show her how to scroll. If he had known it would be this easy to keep her occupied with a phone, he would have been nicer from the start. Well, maybe not. But at least he had some peace and quiet now.

Or, he did, until music blared from the speakers, startling both of them. He closed the app and the raucous sound stopped as quickly as it had started.

"Little warning next time." Alex muttered.

"How was I supposed to know it would do that?" She lowered her hands from her ears and he thought she almost looked amused. "What the hell was that?"

"Do you not have music where you came from?"

To his utter surprise, she actually laughed. He hadn't thought she knew how. "That's music? God, this world is worse than I thought."

He opened his mouth, ready with some equally sarcastic quip about her lack of taste, when the flash of headlights caught his eye. "Alright, short stuff. Pizza's here. Make yourself scarce. "

The door screeched open and he caught sight of Nora ducking behind the computer as the delivery guy dropped the box on the counter. There was the awkward small talk as he signed the slip and he tried not to look down to make sure she was still hidden away. Not that this kid would have suspected that he had a little stowaway but he still didn't trust her. He mostly didn't trust her not to run off but he hoped that not being seen was a good enough motivator to keep her from doing anything too stupid. For now, anyway. Even after the door closed again, Alex waited until the tail lights disappeared around the corner until he sat down again.

"Hope you're hungry." She crept back out from her hiding place and he opened the box. Four slices were more than enough for both of them considering it would take her a month to get through a single one.

-

She couldn't remember the last time she had smelled something so good. A crazy image ran through her head, of climbing into the box and diving headfirst into the gooey, cheesy mess but logic thankfully took over. If she did that, she'd be covered in sauce and with only one set of clothes and only one way to get cleaned up, it wasn't something she wanted to think about. Her patience had just about run out as he tore off a piece and placed it in the top half of the box where she could get to it without making a mess. He claimed the rest of that slice and Nora couldn't wait any longer.

"Take it easy." He warned, pulling her back by the hood of her jacket a second before she reached the first glob of cheese. "It's hot."

She whined. "I don't care, it smells so good."

"Don't say I didn't warn you then."

Screw his warning, she thought, pulling at a string and blowing on it. When you were lucky enough to get food that was hot, you didn't waste time letting it go cold. Grease dripped down her arm and she shrugged off her jacket and hoodie before they could get dirty again. The last thing she wanted was to have to surrender her clothes again. Even if wearing clean clothes was another luxury she rarely experienced... She'd been spoiled more in the last couple of days than in the previous five years. Maybe this place wasn't so bad after all.

No, she reminded herself. She was still tiny, still a prisoner, and she was still going to get sent to some new refugee camp in a few days. She couldn't let herself go soft now, just for some pizza and clean clothes. The pizza was good though. She moaned happily and she heard the deep bass rumbling of a chuckle over her head.

"Shut up." She said but there was no venom behind it. She didn't care if he was laughing at her. Right now, Nora was going to enjoy this pizza, giant world be damned.

By the time he made it through his second slice, she had barely made a dent in hers and she was already stuffed.

"Throwing in the towel already, huh?"

"If I eat another bite, I'm going to puke." She said, examining the sauce and grease dripping from her hands. "I'm tempted though."

Alex made a face and tore off a little square of napkin. "If you do, you're cleaning it up."

He tidied up the desk while Nora wiped futility at her hands with the scratchy paper. For a while, it seemed like all it did was spread the mess around but finally, she made some progress. Her hands were finally grease free when he came back over.

"Missed a spot." He observed.

Nora twisted, looking for the stray streak of sauce but his indication wasn't very precise, considering that she was barely the size of the finger pointed at her. "Where?"

Rather than explain, that same finger came towards her, brushing the back of her arm above her elbow and she could see now where the blob had been. She handed him the napkin but he licked it off and wiped his finger on his pants. He seemed to realize what he'd done just after she did but he only stared down at her, daring her to say something.

He wasn't going to get a rise out of her this time, she decided. She was going to enjoy being full and warm and relatively safe while it lasted. "Can I have some water?"

He frowned. "Shit, I didn't bring anything." After a cursory search for something that might work, he returned with a plastic water bottle. "Think the cap will work?"


	13. Chapter 13

Well, if she wasn't going to say anything, he certainly wasn't. Maybe she felt as awkward as he did but he hadn't even thought about it when he licked the little blob of sauce off of his finger. He hadn't meant anything by it. It was just one of those motions his brain carried out when he wasn't paying attention. Besides, it wasn't as if he had licked it off of her. The mental image of her kicking and swearing as he licked her like a popsicle almost made him laugh but after a brief moment of absurdity, it left him feeling unsettled in a way he really didn't want to think about. 

"Hello?" Alex was jarred out of his thoughts by her quiet voice.

"What?" 

She huffed. "I asked how much longer until your shift is over."

"Why? Got somewhere to be?" He checked his phone. Still another hour, at least. And that was if his co-worker was on time. Fat chance of that happening. 

"I'm bored." She complained.

"So? It's not my job to entertain you." 

His tone was more sarcastic than he had meant it to be and he knew immediately that he had fucked up. The truce they had started to establish crumbled with the look she shot him. It was better that way, he thought. Getting too friendly with her wasn't a good idea and not just because he didn't want to keep chasing images of licking sauce off of her out of his head. It would be harder for her to adjust to the city if she got too comfortable with him. Not that he thought that was a real possibility. He was sure she would be as happy to leave as he would be to see her gone. But if he was a real dick, she would likely make the next few days even more miserable for him. 

"It's going to be a while." He said, in lieu of an apology. "Why don't you pick a show?"

While she weighed whether another argument was worth it or not, he slid the remote over to her. He was relieved when she finally relented and bent over to examine the buttons.

"The channel buttons-" He leaned over to show her but she cut him off.

"I know how a remote works." She snapped. He raised his hands, surrendering. Fine, he thought. Let her do it herself. She'll find out which buttons stick on her own.

Before she even had a chance to try, the front door screeched open. They both reacted immediately. Alex reached for her but Nora was already sprinting across the desk for a hiding place. In his panic, he tried to grab her and she bounced off of his palm, landing hard on her back. He intended to slip her into a pocket but there wasn't any time; his coworker was already through the doorway separating the lobby from the office space. He did the only thing he could think of. He slid her off the desk and into his lap, hiding her under his hand just as a backpack landed right where she had been standing a moment earlier. 

"Ordered pizza, huh?" Alex pulled the chair in, hiding the hand- and the girl- under the desk but Matty didn't seem to notice that anything was amiss. "What's the special occasion?"

"Forgot to bring anything from home." He could feel tiny arms pushing at him, tiny legs kicking uselessly at his palm and her squirming against-

Oh fuck. 

Alex took a deep breath and tried to ignore the wiggling between his hand and his crotch. When that didn't work, he tried to smush her into holding still but that backfired miserably. That brief increase in pressure must have caused her to panic. The girl fought back even harder and he was surprised- and slightly horrified- to feel himself stiffen in response. She must have felt it too because she finally froze. Well, shit. He thought. She would be pissed enough once he let her up but he didn’t even want to think about the fight they would have later because of _this_. It would probably end with him squeezing her in his fist again. He remembered how her little body had felt when he’d grabbed her that first night- her heartbeat a little flutter against his skin, tiny fists bouncing off of his knuckles as if he were made of steel… He sucked in a quick breath and desperately looked for a distraction. 

He couldn't believe he was reacting like this, least of all to her. He had always kind of thought of the refugees as a different species. He knew that wasn't accurate but she was still technically from a different world. And yet, here he was, getting a boner like a creep just from some clumsy and inadvertent touching. It wasn't like he _wanted_ to have her trapped in his lap. It was a purely physical reaction, nothing else but it was only getting worse the longer he held her there. He silently swore at his co-worker, willing him to turn around, leave, anything. 

Finally, the moment came.

"I'm gonna have a smoke before I start." He offered the pack to Alex who shook his head. 

"Trying to quit." Was all he managed to say and with a shrug, he was gone. The second he was sure the coast was clear, Alex scooped the girl up and shoved her roughly into his jacket pocket. He ignored the screams and the endless cursing as he buttoned the flap and pulled it on, trying to think of anything but her.

-

It had taken her a minute to realize where she was after she had collided with Alex’s hand and tumbled off the desk. That same hand had come down over her before she’d had a chance to get her bearings and all she could feel was the heat pouring off his skin above her and scratchy, rough fabric below. 

“Hey! Get off of me!” She yelled but his hand only pressed her down harder, muffling her voice. If he could hear her at all, he ignored her. “Get off! Alex!”

The conversation went on above her and, while she knew he had to keep her from being seen, he didn’t have to press so damn hard. She was starting to sweat and his pulse was beating against her back relentlessly. She was getting more claustrophobic by the second. Nora pushed against him, but he pushed back, making her squeak as the air was forced out of her lungs. When the pressure didn’t immediately let up, she started to panic but no amount of struggling had any effect. Or so she thought until she felt him push back, this time from under her. She clawed at the rough denim, finally realizing where she had landed, but the more she squirmed, the less room she had to move. She knew she had to hold still but every fiber of her being screamed at her to get free. 

It couldn’t have been more than a couple of minutes but it felt like hours as she waited. She could be angry and disgusted later but for right now, she just had to keep enough room in her hiding place that she could continue breathing. His pulse hammered away against her, quickening every time he shifted under her and when his hand came off of her at last, she couldn’t tell whose sweat was whose. 

Her skin prickled in the fresh, cool air but the relief was short lived. Before she could ask what the hell he was doing- what the hell was wrong with him- she was trapped within his hand again. He didn’t even look at her as he dropped her into the pocket, closing the button and effectively trapping her inside. 

She was so fucking stupid. A little pizza and television and she had started to trust him. Her eyes stung with tears as she chided herself for being so gullible. Since she’d been dumped onto his desk, all he had done was push her around, pick her up whenever he wanted, talk to her like a child... And then stuffing her back into another prison without a word after what he had just done. 

Nora didn’t even want to think about it. The thought of where she had been and what had happened made her cheeks burn. It was humiliating, even for someone with as little pride as she had left. And she couldn’t even try not to think about it. Stuck in his pocket, he was all around her. _Thump thump thump_. A constant presence, even when she couldn’t see him. The ride was bumpy enough when he was walking slowly but she wished he would hurry up. She wanted to get out of there and away from him as soon as possible. 

_Thump thump thump_. The heat and the swaying and the droning thump of his heart was making her eyes heavy. The thought of him reaching in and grabbing her while she was asleep was the only thing keeping her awake but even that wouldn't last much longer. Once or twice, she caught herself nodding off only to awake to muffled conversation and then the jingle of keys. 

Nora waited impatiently for light to pour into her makeshift prison again. She slumped down into the bottom of the pocket, hoping her wiggling would remind him she was still there. Not that she expected he'd forget she was in there after what happened earlier. God, she hoped he didn't want to talk about it. Even if he didn't apologize, it would be an apology enough to forget the entire night had ever happened.

Finally, the flap of the pocket opened. Nora prepared herself to be grabbed again but no fingers reached in for her. 

"You awake in there?" 

She stood up as best she could. "Oh, can I come out now?" 

She should have just said yes, she thought. What if he decided not to let her out after all? The heavy rise and fall of his chest knocked her off balance again but she managed to hold on. 

He pulled the pocket open to look down at her. All she could see was up his nose. "Are you okay?"

The words surprised her. She hadn't actually expected him to give a shit if she was okay. And she definitely wasn't. None of this was okay. She was still angry- she had every right to be, she reminded herself- but she was tired and she wanted fresh air.

"I'm fine." She muttered. "Just let me out."


	14. Chapter 14

Alex fished her out of the pocket and set her on the table. Without another word, he shrugged off the jacket, tossed it over the back of the chair, and started emptying the bag of groceries he'd bought on the way home. The corner shop didn't have much but it was the only thing open at that hour and they needed real food. As much as she'd probably like it, they couldn't have pizza every night. He couldn't afford anything fancy but he’d bought enough to keep them from eating toast for every meal. At least she didn't eat much.

His cooking skills weren't anything to brag about- and that was giving himself undue credit already. Still, she wouldn't starve while she was here. And if she didn't like it, she was welcome to cook her own damn food. He closed the pantry cupboard a little harder than he'd meant to and saw her flinch out of the corner of his eye.

He didn’t know why he was mad at her. There was the obvious fact that he was stuck babysitting her but that wasn’t it. Not this time, anyway. She hadn’t done anything wrong. In fact, for once, she had actually done what he’d told her to do: hide. But he’d panicked and, well... It was the _situation_ that irritated him but he wanted to be angry at her, ignore her, leave her in that pocket all night- all so he wouldn’t have to apologize.

He had to, somehow, but what the hell was he supposed to say? ‘Sorry I smushed you into my lap and got a boner?’ Alex groaned inwardly at that thought. Even more than he wanted to avoid an apology, he wanted to avoid thinking about it at all. Stalling by pretending she wasn’t sulking on his table was only making it worse. He glanced over at her at last. Her knees were pulled up to her chest, her chin resting on her arms, and her tiny frame swallowed in that big ugly jacket. He felt like they had almost reached some kind of truce and all it had taken was some pizza and television. He’d gotten her name- finally- and even made her laugh. Now it would be a miracle if she spoke to him without some sort of insult again and he couldn’t even blame her.

It wasn’t like he’d _wanted_ that to happen, he reminded himself again. His only concern at the time was hiding her. The trouble he’d have gotten into if anyone found out he’d brought his little uninvited guest would have been way worse than dealing with a moody little brat for a couple more days. He hadn’t wanted to bring her in the first place. This never would have happened if they’d picked her up in time. Or if she had stayed in her own damn world to begin with. Why did he even care that she was upset? In a couple days, she’d be nothing more than a memory, just like the rest of them. Still, it nagged at him so he filled a mug and a bottle cap with coffee and pulled out the chair with his foot.

His offering only earned him a glare but he let it slide and sat down. Once or twice, he was on the verge of explaining that it had been an accident but everything he had to say sounded stupid when he remembered his reaction.

“I’ve got some work to wrap up.” He tried again to draw her out of that sullen silence. He thought he was starting to understand her a little more. Food was a big motivator to get her to cooperate but so was curiosity. “But I thought of something on the way home.”

It worked. Her interest was piqued and he had to resist the urge to gloat that she'd taken his bait so easily. “Does it involve being stuffed into a pocket again?”

Now he was tempted to tell her to forget it and leave her there. But he was trying to apologize, he told himself. “No, actually. I’ve got an old phone you can use while you're here, if you want. It’s out of minutes so no calling-”

“Who am I going to call?” She asked.

“ _But_ ,” he continued, ignoring her. “You can still connect to the wifi and browse the internet or play games or whatever.” 

She regarded him for a moment, her expression revealing nothing as to whether she would accept his peace offering or not. Finally, she sat up, looking slightly less tense than before but still wary. “What’s wifi?”

-

He laughed and the loudness of it made her wince. While it was better than yelling, she could still _feel_ the sound and it unnerved her. She would have to add that to the long, long list of things she would never get used to here.

“Sorry.” He said. “I forgot. No smart phones wherever you're from. Did you at least have the internet?”

Nora thought for a moment. “I think so. I didn’t have a computer but I used one at school.” 

He explained the concept and it was simple enough but she didn't need the extraneous detail. All it did was frustrate her when she didn't understand something. And there was a lot she didn't understand. She let him go on but she had already stopped listening. Would her world have been like this if everything hadn't gone to hell? Would she have had a phone that played music and videos and ordered pizza? A crummy job she hated?

Nora was so wrapped up in her own thoughts that she didn't realize he'd finally shut up until his hand was in front of her on the table. She hadn't meant to flinch but her last experience being in his hands was still fresh in her mind.

"Calm down. I'm not going to grab you." The tinge of annoyance that she had gotten so used to was back in his voice.

"You said that before, too." She muttered.

"You want the phone or not?"

It was clear by now that she wasn't going anywhere unless he carried her but that didn't make her like it any better. Still, it was that or sit on the table alone and bored.

Being bored. What a funny concept, she thought. There had never been time for boredom before. Maybe that's why she had felt so restless since arriving here. There was nothing to _do_. Before, there was always something that had to be done: finding shelter, food, water. Avoiding strangers… and portals to other worlds. Now, she was too small to do anything.

At last, she gave in and climbed on. An unintentional squeak escaped her as his fingers closed around her but they stayed loose enough to keep her from panicking. Nora tried to think of something else- anything else- to distract her from the heat pouring off his skin. She could feel his pulse pick up and remembered how he had reacted when-

Why was it so hard to not think about it?! It was like the more she chased those thoughts away, the stronger they came back. If this was going to happen every time he picked her up, she would drive herself crazy by the time they came to take her to the city. The city... That could be the distraction she had been looking for. From what she hadn’t ignored of Alex’s explanation, she remembered he’d said that she could search for information on anything she could think of. Maybe she could get some more details on this place at last.


	15. Chapter 15

Alex bent to pull open a drawer in one of the filing cabinets and the sudden change in elevation sent Nora scrambling for something to hang on to. Unfortunately, there wasn't much available. It was bad enough just being in his hand right now, she thought. The last thing she wanted was to be wrapped around his finger..

He ignored her protests as he searched through the drawer while she tried her best to keep from slipping out of his hand. Finally, he found whatever it was he was looking for and stood up, jostling her again. Her stomach was still deciding where it wanted to settle when he finally set her on the desk. 

She took a couple of wobbly steps away from his hands. “You’re lucky I don’t puke on you.” 

He snorted and set the phone on the desk, propping it up against a mug so that she could see. 

“So we went over the basics earlier.” He said, drawing a pattern on the screen that brought up a panel of different symbols. He touched a couple of them to show her what they did and while that was easy enough, using them took a little more explanation. 

“Okay, if you touch this bar up here-” He did so with a finger and a keyboard popped up. “You can type in anything you want and it’ll bring up stuff about whatever you searched for. Let’s try…” He tapped out the word ‘pizza’ and sure enough, anything she could ever want to know about pizza appeared. “Got it?”

Nora nodded. That would be handy in her search for information about the city. He showed her how to watch videos, find music and play a couple of games but she didn't care about any of that. She was just eager to get to her research. “Yep. Got it. Easy.” 

The phone was nearly double her height and even standing on her tiptoes, she had to reach to get to the search bar at the top of the screen. After some experimentation, she got the hang of it but when she typed in ‘city’, she realized that this might be harder than she had initially thought. There was this city’s population, that city’s museum, a list of cities for business, pictures of cities but nothing about the city she was going to. She needed to be more specific. A couple of different combinations still didn’t return anything useful and Nora was getting frustrated. What good was having all this information if she couldn’t sort through it to find what she needed? She was tempted to complain to Alex about it when she finally stumbled on a combination of words that worked. There was still _so_ much to look through. It was a little overwhelming so she decided to start with something easy- pictures.

She recognized the first picture immediately. It was one that Alex had shown her on his computer when he was trying to get her to cooperate. The distraction was working, at least. She completely forgot about being angry at Alex and instead wanted to punch all of those smiling faces on the screen. What did they have to be so happy about? They had been ripped out of their own worlds, away from their homes, away from everything they knew just to be tossed into a fancy refugee camp and forgotten by some giant jerks. How the hell was it so easy for them all to accept this? There had to be some people that felt like she did, she thought. Maybe some of them had even tried to leave and she wondered if any of them had succeeded. Nora made a mental note to look that up next.

The pictures weren’t helping, she decided, and moved on. Nora scrolled through a couple of articles but that made her irritated all over again. While she was a competent enough reader, having never had any time for it made it slow going. In half an hour, she had only made it through two articles when she decided that was enough. She had the gist, anyway, and it wasn’t much different than what Alex had told her to begin with. Well, she thought, at least he hadn’t lied to her. Somehow, that actually made her feel a little better. 

She decided to try some of the videos next. One of them was an interview with someone her size. It was absurd, watching him talk into a microphone bigger than he was. He talked about coming through his portal, how it had appeared in his own kitchen one morning, and of the wonderful job they had done filling him in on what had happened, helping him acclimate to this new life, and how great this fresh start had been for him. Nora gave a humorless laugh imagining describing her time here with Alex as wonderful or helpful. 

The next video that came up didn't have any refugees. Neither did the one after, nor the one following that. The tone changed considerably as well with each subsequent video but she had barely noticed until the last one. The man on the screen gave her a bad feeling and it didn't take long to confirm that her instinct had been correct. He talked about refugees as if they were vermin. He speculated on what diseases they could be bringing over from their world and lamented the cost to the people of this world to support them while they got a free ride. By the time he got to his opinion on what should be done with them, she remembered that he was talking about _her_ too. 

-

A loud clatter turned his attention back to the girl. She had managed to jump out of the way as the phone fell forward and landed where she had been standing a moment earlier. He was about to chastise her for nearly getting herself hurt when he saw her expression. 

“What’s wrong now?” He figured that it had been a sad animal video responsible for the tears on her face but she looked ready for a fight. She was as angry as he had ever seen her and for the first time, he was glad that she was as small as she was. 

“That guy on the video! All the stuff he was saying about people like me!” Her fists were balled up, clutching the cuffs of her jacket as she stomped over to him. 

Alex was genuinely confused. “What video? What’d he say?”

“He said that we were rats! That we’re bringing diseases and-” He stopped her before she exploded.

“Calm down.” He picked up the phone and looked at the video that she had been watching. “Oh, this nutjob?” Alex had heard of him but had never seen any of his videos before. The guy had a reputation for being an asshole on a host of issues but he could see why Nora would be upset.

She was still pacing around the desk. “Why would he say all that? It’s not like we chose to come here!” She aimed a kick at his mouse. 

Alex shrugged. “People say all sorts of dumb shit, don’t take it personally.” That didn’t seem to calm her down any but her pacing was starting to make him antsy as well. He scooped her off the desk. 

“Put me down!” One of her fists connected with his thumb but he didn’t stop her. Better she get it out of her system instead of stewing over it all night and getting sullen again. “Damn it, you can’t grab me whenever you want!”

“I get it, it’s infuriating, but you need to chill out. The guy does this act to piss people off. It's his thing. He does it for clicks.”

“Yeah, and he has a lot! Does everyone here think we’re pests?”

“No.” He said. “Of course not. Otherwise they wouldn’t have built an entire city for you guys to be safe.” There were a few people out there who still had some pretty backwards opinions of the refugees but for the most part, nobody really gave them much thought. 

Nora scoffed. “Yeah, safe. You mean locked away.”

“What, you think it would be better running around outside fighting off cats and trying not to get stepped on?” He quickly scrolled through the watch history with his free hand to see what else he needed to prepare himself for. “Jeez, how many of these did you watch?”

“Maybe it would be better!” She shot back. “At least I’d have a choice!”

He understood where she was coming from and he actually did feel for her. If he’d had a choice, he wouldn’t be working two shitty jobs and he definitely wouldn’t be having this conversation right now. “Look, it sucks. I get it. But it is what it is. You can’t change it. I can’t change it. You just have to take whatever shit the world gives you and try and make the best of it.”

While she wasn’t raging anymore, Alex could still feel the anger pouring off of her. “Easy for you to say. You get to stay in your own house in your own world. You’re not the one getting dumped in a glorified cage somewhere you can't ever leave.”

“That’s not-” He tried to think of the right words. He did sort of agree with her but there wasn’t anything he could do about it so there wasn’t much point getting upset. “You think I’d be doing this job if I thought they were throwing you guys in a cage or whatever?” 

“Like you care.” She huffed. “You made it pretty clear that we’re all just an inconvenience to you.” 

That stung, especially because she wasn’t wrong. He hadn’t exactly given her a great impression of himself but he thought he deserved more credit than that. “I know I’ve been an asshole the last couple of days but I hope you can believe me when I say that if I thought they were sending refugees somewhere bad, I wouldn’t be doing this job.” 

He guessed that she hadn’t expected that admission but screw it, he thought. He tried to call things as he saw them and he _had_ taken every opportunity to tell her how much of a pain in the ass she was. 

"Come on. Don't you think you’ll be happier when you’re in a place where you can reach the shelves and you aren’t getting stuck in sinks?” She didn’t look convinced. Well, he tried. “Speaking of, it’s late. I’m gonna take a shower and turn in. You want to go first?”

The girl accepted defeat for now and after a moment, she nodded. “I still smell like pizza sauce.” 

Why did she have to mention that? Now he was remembering wiping the glob of tomato sauce off of her arm and everything else that had happened after that. Since he couldn't get black out drunk to forget, he decided that sleep would be the next best thing. Maybe everything would feel less awkward and fucked up after a good night’s sleep. He didn’t really believe that though. It was only a temporary reprieve from but he would take it all the same.


	16. Chapter 16

The faucet set at a trickle made for a pretty good shower, Nora noted. It wasn't as luxurious as a bath but it was better than she was used to all the same. She couldn't help but sigh, letting the endless supply of clean, warm water fall around her. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth and, for once, she let herself be happy. This world was going to make her soft, she just knew it. 

She had earned it, hadn't she? After years of fighting and scavenging and hiding and fear and _loneliness_... The loneliness was insidious. Nora hadn't even realized how it had crept up on her and dug its claws in until she finally had someone to talk to again. In her world, people were a liability or a danger. They would either slow you down and give you another mouth to feed or they would rob you. Or worse. Here, she didn't have a choice. She was stuck with Alex and it was such a strange feeling, interacting with another person who she wasn't afraid of.

She _wasn't_ afraid of him anymore, she realized. Not really. His size made her nervous but she was pretty sure by now that he wouldn’t hurt her on purpose. Even after what had happened earlier, now that she’d had some time to cool down, she knew that had been an accident. And he had even apologized, in his own way. She thought back to what he had said before. He'd said that he wouldn’t send people like her somewhere if he knew that they would get hurt. She wasn’t sure why but she believed him. Although she hated to admit it, she knew that she could have been stuck with someone much worse. He could be an asshole, he'd admitted that himself, but it could always, always be worse. 

There was a knock at the door and Nora scrambled to get the washcloth that Alex had left within her reach.

"You decent?" He cracked the door and waited a few seconds before coming in. Nora turned around, hugging the washcloth tightly around her. She readied herself to be lifted out when she saw that all he was wearing was a pair of baggy sweatpants and a towel over his shoulder. She looked away. It was only polite, she told herself. He didn’t look at her, she would show the same courtesy. That was it. Nothing else. Nora could feel herself flushing but if Alex had noticed, he said nothing. He scooped her up, washcloth and all, and carried her back to his room without a word.

"I'll be out in ten." He told her, placing her in the drawer that was her makeshift bed. "Try not to get into any trouble in the meantime, huh?"

"I'm too tired to get into any trouble." Nora said, stifling a yawn.

"Don't jinx it."

His footsteps receded and when she heard the click of the bathroom door, she unwrapped herself and dried off. After surveying the pile of clothes, Nora picked out only her t-shirt and underwear. Since she was treating herself to luxuries tonight, she decided that she didn't have to sleep in jeans and boots for once. After all, it didn’t seem like Alex felt the need to wear much to sleep. No, damn it. She wasn’t going to think about that. Why was she thinking about that? It wasn't like she had never seen a guy without a shirt on before. What was different now? Whatever it was- and it was nothing, she reminded herself again- she would worry about it tomorrow. Tonight, she would sleep and pretend the entire day had never happened and she would waking up thinking clearly.

She settled into the pile of whatever spare bedding Alex had provided and noticed that it was softer than it had been the night before. There was another pillowcase and even a couple of bandanas and she wondered why he had gone to the trouble. After all, he didn't care about her. Why should he care if she was comfortable? But that was yet another question for tomorrow. She was determined to let herself enjoy going soft for the night so she molded the layers into something comfortable and stretched out. The feel of something other than denim on her skin was even better than pizza... but only a little. 

The white noise from the shower was trying its hardest to lull her to sleep but there was one thing still keeping her from giving in. As much as she wanted to drift off, with sleep came dreams. And nightmares. Those damn nightmares. She’d had another one last night, a bad one that woke her up with bleary eyes and a headache. The nightmares were better than having to always sleep with one eye open though. It was amazing how much better she felt being able to actually sleep through a night. Sure, she knew that she was sleeping next to a giant who could roll over and grab her in the middle of the night if he wanted to. But at the same time, Nora couldn’t help but think that if she'd had Alex around back home, no one would have ever fucked with her. Wouldn’t that have been nice.

-

After he had dried off and brushed his teeth, he went to check on the girl. It was quiet. His first instinct was suspicion but as he looked in, he saw that she was already fast asleep. Alex watched for another few seconds, just to make sure that she wasn’t faking. When he was satisfied, he turned off the overhead light, leaving the nightstand lamp on in case she woke up. He laughed to himself. The other night, he had left her to sleep on his desk. Now he was all but tucking her in. 

Alex grabbed a few bottles of beer and went to the couch. He knew he should probably get some sleep. He was exhausted and had another long day ahead of him tomorrow but his mind wouldn't stop. He needed a distraction- from everything. From the last couple of days, from her, from this damn job- but there was nothing on the tv that managed to pull him away from his thoughts. His mind kept going back to earlier. Not _that_ much earlier. He refused to let himself think about that but her reaction to that video got to him for some reason. The guy was full of shit, he knew that, but she hadn’t. Of course she would have reacted that way. She was always pissed about something but that video had really set her off.

He had meant it when he said that he wouldn’t be doing this job if he knew people were getting hurt. He wasn’t a monster, after all. He had his limits. But what if he did find out that he was sending them- sending _her_ \- somewhere awful. No, he told himself. He wouldn’t do that. He wouldn't send her there.

Would he? 

It wasn’t like he had a choice. Even if he quit, someone else would take the job and they would make sure to hire someone who didn’t care. If he refused to send her off, he’d end up fired or in jail and she would end up in the city anyway. There was no way around it. Alex sighed and finished off another bottle. This was why they were never supposed to stay. It was much easier to let them, and himself, get on with their lives instead of stressing themselves out about all of the what ifs. Although, he guessed that the stress lasted much longer for them. Once they were out of his house, he didn’t have to think about them anymore but they still had to get there, go through processing, start an entirely new life. He didn’t think about them or their fears and their futures at all. 

For the first time, Alex did think about the people he had sent there since he started this job. He couldn’t remember any of their names or faces or even how many he had processed. Twenty? Fifty? Were they okay? Were they happy? Nora was right then, in a way. They were forgotten. Forgotten in their world and in this new one. Just sent away to some city that all of them had to trust was fine. What if it wasn’t fine? Could he send this little pain in the ass off if he knew they were going to throw her in a glorified hamster cage and forget her? 

When the tv wasn’t doing anything else to distract him and he had downed a decent number of beers, he decided to turn in. He didn't even bother tidying up. Screw it. He would deal with it tomorrow. Even after he had turned off the rest of the lights and dragged himself into bed, he still couldn’t shut his brain up. Why did he care? Why should he? Why had he even let her put that shit in his head? He’d never been to the city before but a couple of his colleagues had and they’d never said anything about it. If it had been so terrible, they would have mentioned it. No. She was better off with people her own size, he told himself again, as if he was the one he had to convince. In time, he would forget her like all the others. And she would forget him too. Just as it should be.


	17. Chapter 17

She was crushed against the chain link fence by the seething mass of filthy, hungry people. Wave after wave slammed into her, forcing the air out of her lungs as she tried to get free. The metal fencing bit into her skin but she couldn't move her legs to kick or her arms to push. Behind her, the fence started to buckle against the shoving and shaking of the desperate crowd. They were trying to get to the last of the Red Cross trucks as they drove away- not that there was anything left in them. Once the announcement had come over the bullhorn that they were out of food, the entire camp had erupted. They had already been on tight rations for weeks and Nora had only eaten a tin of peaches and some stale bread in the last two days. It was only by luck that she'd got the fruit. She was thirteen, alone and already too skinny and one of the volunteers had taken pity on her. Nora had thought that if she could only get to one of the trucks, she could beg them to pity her again and take her with them. She would earn her keep. She'd already learned first aid by helping some of the camp medics. She wouldn't be a burden. But everyone else had apparently had the same idea and now she was being smothered by a hundred frantic people, unable to escape, barely able to breathe...

She woke with a gasp, ready to fight, but after a few minutes, she realized that she was alone. It was dark, the air was cool and clean and the only sound was a quiet snore coming from somewhere she couldn't see. The next tent over? No, she told herself. There wasn't a tent. She was in a drawer in another world, far from any of the camps she dreamt about. The snoring was Alex. With a sigh, she laid back into the bed she'd made for herself and tried to calm down. It was just another nightmare. It wasn't real. Well, it _had_ been real, a long time ago, but for now she was safe.

Despite the chill from the air, Nora was covered in sweat. She was thirsty too and she wished that she had managed to hang on to her bag when she'd come through the portal. At least then she would have her water bottle and something to serve as a distraction. Sleep was out of the question now. The memory had left her too shaken to fall back asleep. When she found herself sleepless in the past, she would have found something to repair or taken the opportunity to travel a few more miles. Stuck in the drawer, all she had were her memories to dwell on.

After tossing and turning for a while, Nora tried pacing. When that did nothing, she finally decided to see if she could get Alex's attention. Sure, he was irritating and would probably be grumpy if she woke him up but even that kind of company was better than sitting alone in the dark reliving old trauma.

She called his name once, then tried again a little louder but it was useless. He was either too deeply asleep, the lucky bastard, or her voice was just too quiet. She looked at the walls of the drawer around her. They weren’t that high… too high to climb out of but not impossible if she only had something to stand on. Alex hadn’t left anything in the drawer but bedding out of suspicion that she would use it to escape. And, as it turned out, he was right. She was doing exactly what he had expected. It didn’t make her curse him any less though.

Nora was nothing if not resourceful though and she was damned if he was going to outwit her. First, she tried to throw one of the pillowcases over the side, hoping she could climb it. That failed when she realized that the fabric was too heavy and unwieldy to even lift over her head. Next, she tried to tie two of the bandanas together and hoped that would be easier but that plan failed just as quickly. Finally, she balled up all the bedding and shoved it into one of the corners to climb it. That proved more effective but it still left her about a foot short of the lip of the drawer. After a moment to rest and think through the problem, Nora backed up against the far corner of the drawer and ran at the pile of cloth. The first try was unsuccessful. She bounced off the wall and landed hard on her back, earning herself another couple of bruises. Undeterred, she tried again with similar results. It wasn’t until her sixth attempt that she even touched the lip. She was panting, her hair was plastered to her face with sweat and she wondered if this was worth the trouble. What was she even trying to do? Maybe it was impossible after all. She resolved to try once more and if she didn’t make it, fine. At least she had tried.

Shaking out her sore muscles, she took a deep breath and ran. Her bare feet sunk into the wad of fabric but she was light enough that she didn't depress it too much and up she went. She reached as high as she could, her fingertips grabbing at the smooth wood and-

She caught it. Barely, but she had it. Now all she had to do was pull herself up. Easier said than done, she thought. Her muscles were on fire. Her elbow protested, having been banged up in one of her previous attempts, but she wasn't going to let go now. Her feet slipped against the wall but inch by inch, she got one arm over, then another and she pulled herself up.

Nora sat on the edge of the drawer, huffing and wiping sweat from her eyes. She made it. Even she couldn’t believe she’d made it. She almost wished that Alex had been awake so she could gloat but she could already hear the admonishment she would get from him in her head. He would be pissed if he knew she had made it out. Well, she thought, what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him. She would have a look around and slip back in before he woke up.

While she caught her breath, she took the opportunity to scope out the room. It was dark but not completely. She could make out the door to the bathroom, the closet, and to the rest of the house. There was a table and, of course, the bed. And Alex. He looked more like a small mountain in the dim light, except mountains didn’t snore.

It was then that she realized that this could be her chance to escape. Now that she had a way out of the drawer, it couldn’t be that much harder to find a way to the floor, right? It couldn’t be tonight though. She had left all of her stuff in the drawer and it would be hard enough to survive out there- she didn't need to make it harder by running off in only her underwear and a t-shirt. Tonight, she would explore and find a path down, that was it. She climbed onto the top of the nightstand and looked for anything she could use. Alex was smarter than she gave him credit for and had pretty well refugee proofed the room. Like with his desk, there were no convenient cords to use as a rope. The only way down would be from the bed.

Climbing into his bed where he could roll over and squash her without even knowing it was a daunting prospect but she couldn’t think of another option. She would just have to keep well away from him in case he moved. She had to make sure not to wake him up either. He would likely close the drawer from now on if he caught her and the claustrophobia would be almost as bad as being squashed. 

She chose his unused pillow as a landing spot. It was a little too close to him for her liking but it was the softest landing she was likely to get and, before she could talk herself out of it, she ran and jumped. She imagined that she would have landed gently, sinking into the soft surface of the pillow before climbing down to the bed to make her escape. That wasn't quite what happened. She was small enough and the pillow firm enough that as soon as she touched down, she bounced. Nora flailed in the air with a squeak and tumbled down the pillow to land on the mattress below. Maybe it was just another side effect of her new size but she remembered mattresses being softer. Nora sucked in a breath and winced as she sat up. She was going to be sore later. She glanced up at Alex and was relieved to find that he was still asleep.

Even laying down, he towered over her. He was on his back, his arms crossed over his bare chest. The blanket was draped loosely over his waist and a leg stuck out over the edge of the bed. The blanket fell all the way to the floor and it looked fairly easy to climb. That would have been her way down, if his leg hadn't been blocking the way. But now that her best option had been removed, she would have to find something else. First, however, she needed to rest. Just getting out of the drawer had left her exhausted.

Nora stared up at the sleeping mountain of a person next to her. It wasn't often that she got to just look at him. He was so big that it was hard to actually _look_ at him while he was moving around or holding her. She felt a little creepy staring at him like that but, despite everything, his size was still fascinating. And now, with him still and quiet, she could look all she wanted. Nora got to her feet and found the surface was unsteady. Every little movement that he made moved the mattress under her and threatened to throw her off balance. Still, she couldn't resist taking a couple of steps closer. 

Standing next to him- and way closer than she should have been- she found that she wasn't even tall enough to reach the top of his shoulder while standing on her tip toes. Briefly, she imagined what it would take to climb up his arm and onto his chest but she quickly chased that thought away. She didn't know why but it left her feeling unsettled, the same way she'd felt when he'd wiped that bit of sauce off of her arm. Nora chalked it up to her lack of social interaction over the past few years. When she hadn't been around anyone for so long, it was bound to feel awkward being near someone at all.

Wasn't it? 

Nora sighed. He was so lucky and he didn't even know it. He had everything. A roof over his head, safety, freedom. Not only did he never want for food or clean water, but he could sleep like a baby. She couldn't remember the last time she had slept without one eye open. If she stayed here long enough, she might get to that point some day but it wouldn't be any time soon. At least she had finally worn herself out with all of that activity. The heat coming from his skin and the steady sound of his breathing were making her drowsy too. It was time to get back to the drawer, she decided, while she still had some energy left.

She hadn't taken more than two steps when everything suddenly shifted under her. She fell forward onto her hands and knees but barely had time to think before she saw the cause. Alex was moving, rolling towards her. Nora scrambled out of the way and just missed his arm coming down on top of her. She barely made it out of the way in time and, unaware that she was there or that he'd almost crushed her, Alex settled again. 

It was even darker now with his body surrounding her. Although she could barely see, she could tell that she was trapped. It took a moment to get her bearings but she quickly determined that she was stuck in a little triangle of space between his arm, his pillow and his chest. Her heart was hammering as she realized how close of a call that had been. Now what was she supposed to do?

There was no way to get out without touching him and with that came the risk of waking him up. She would have to try anyway because she sure as hell couldn't stay there. After a few minutes to make sure he was really asleep, she put her hands on his wrist to pull herself up. He didn't react. She pushed a little harder. Still nothing. Nora breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe she was going to get away with this idiotic idea after all. 

Slowly and as carefully as she could manage, she started to climb over. Just as she was pulling a knee up, there was a sharp intake of breath above her head and under her hands, she could feel his muscles tense. She froze, waiting for his eyes to open. He was going to freak, she just knew it. And she wouldn't hear the end of it until they came to get her. The least she could hope for was that he wouldn't put her in that box again. 

But his eyes didn't open. He didn't stir again. Nora would just have to wait. Eventually, he would either move or he would be deeply enough asleep that she could climb over his arm. All she had to do was wait him out.


	18. Chapter 18

It was so much nicer waking up gradually instead of to a blaring alarm, Alex thought. He wondered how much time he had before it went off but he didn't want to roll over to check. He was too comfortable. There was nothing demanding his attention for once and he could just relax. Maybe he had two minutes, maybe he had an hour. However much time he got to lay there in the dark, he would take it. Soon, he'd have to be up and worrying again.

He drifted between consciousness and sleep, alternating between thinking about everything that he had to do when the alarm finally went off and how goddamn comfortable it was laying in a warm bed in a cool, dark room. He started to roll over when he felt something in his hand. It was small and warm, soft and… moving.

That woke him up faster than any alarm ever had. He pushed himself up on an elbow and opened his hand. In the dim light, he could make out the shape well enough to know exactly what- or who, rather- it was. For a second, he panicked, thinking that he had killed her but as he rolled her over in his palm, he could see her breathing.

"Oh, thank god." He whispered. The girl stirred a little, pulling her legs in closer as the cold air got to her.

What the hell was she doing there? How had she gotten out of the drawer in the first place? The adrenaline was giving way to anger now. She wasn't stupid. Far from it, in fact. That's why he'd taken the precautions he had. So why had she done something so unbelievably stupid? He could have rolled over on her, knocked her off the bed, any number of horrible things and he wouldn't have even known it. He was ready to give her a similarly rude awakening, to shake her awake and ask her just what the hell was wrong with her brain.

Now that he was starting to calm down, he decided that probably wasn't the best idea. Did she deserve it? Absolutely. Would he give her hell for managing to pack so much idiot into such a tiny body? Definitely.

But was she also currently quiet and not sulking or snapping at him?

Alex sighed and laid back, trying to decide what to do with her. As much as he wanted to yell at her, letting her sleep was the best course of action. She _was_ a lot more pleasant this way, after all, and he was trying to enjoy his morning. He glanced back down at her. Her hair had come loose and nearly covered her face. Instead of her big ugly jacket and torn up boots, all she had on was an oversized t-shirt. He hadn't noticed that before and now he was more confused than ever.

What the _hell_ was going on? She hated him but he wakes up with her curled up in his hand? She snapped at him to get out while she was changing but here she is in nothing but a t-shirt and her underwear? That wasn't why he was staring though. He was tempted to touch her, and he wasn't entirely sure why. It was just amazing how much smaller she looked without the layers and layers of baggy clothes she usually wore. She was already small before but now she looked... He didn't know. Vulnerable? Breakable?

Carefully, he sat up, trying not to jostle her too much. She moved a little and Alex could feel her tiny muscles and the slide of her bare skin against his palm as she stretched out a leg and rolled over. Her shirt rode up over her hips and that was when he managed to stop staring. Okay, he thought. Now this is crossing a line. He needed her out of his hand immediately before he started thinking about things he really did not want to think about. Tiny and from a completely different world or not, there was still a half naked woman in his hand. One that he was supposed to be caring for, not ogling, he reminded himself. 

Alex groped around in the drawer with his free hand and discovered how she had gotten out. Clever. That must have taken forever. It was no wonder she was out like a light. If he hadn't been so confused and worried and annoyed, he would have almost been impressed. He rearranged the bedding and placed her back where she _was supposed to be_. For good measure, he pulled one of the bandanas over her like a blanket. The last thing he needed was her accusing him of being a creep. 

He rolled out of bed and headed for the kitchen. He needed coffee. Not so much to wake up but to have something to do. His mind kept coming back to why he had woken up with Nora in his hand. He couldn't think of any good reason she could possibly have but his brain wouldn't let it go. It couldn't have been an accident. She had spent too much effort getting out of the drawer. Was she trying to run away? Not likely, he decided, or she would have been wearing more clothes. It certainly couldn't have been because she wanted to sleep in his hand. She hated being held and he was pretty sure she hated him. 

Just as he was filling his mug, his phone buzzed in his pocket. He fished it out and glanced at the screen. The number was his manager.

God damn it. There was no way he was going in early again. When the hell did they think he was supposed to sleep?

"Hey." He was ready to push back, to say he was unavailable for a double today.

"Hey, Alex. You're off the hook tonight."

He couldn't believe it. That would mean that he would have the next three days off. "Really?"

"Yeah. Tim needs the hours so if you still want to give them up-"

"Absolutely. They're his."

He heard a chuckle from the speaker. "Other job keeping you busy, huh?"

Alex snorted. "You have no idea."

They wrapped up the conversation and Alex hung up feeling happier than he had in a long time. Three days in a row. He didn't even know what to do with himself. Of course, he was technically still working, what with his grumpy and confusing little houseguest hanging around. Still, now he didn't have to worry about hiding her or any of the awkward stuff that came along with that. He decided to cook a real breakfast to celebrate. After all, once Nora was up, he was going to have to tell her not to pull that shit again. He wasn't looking forward to that conversation but at least bacon might make it a little easier.

He let her sleep until he was done cooking. It was quiet as he entered the room and he couldn't believe she wasn't up by now. Jeez, he thought. She must have really worn herself out. He didn't want to look into the drawer, just in case, so he knocked on the tabletop instead.

"You awake in there?" He waited a moment, then heard a groan in response. "Come on, I made breakfast."

There wasn't a reply this time but he heard movement in the drawer. After a minute or two, the rustling stopped.

"Okay, ready." At least now she was wearing clothes, he told himself. Was the rest of the day going to be as weird and fucked up as this morning had been? He really hoped not. She shifted in his palm as he started walking and he remembered how she had rolled over and settled in against his fingers while she'd been sleeping.

Nope. It wasn't likely to get any less weird.

-

"Oh my god." She moaned. "Is that…?"

He slid a plate between them and sat down. "Bacon, eggs, toast. I did the eggs scrambled. Figured it would be easier."

There were softball sized bits of egg and clumsily cut pieces of bacon and toast at the edge of the plate where she could reach. She picked up a fluffy yellow chunk and took a bite. It was even better than she had expected.

"I haven't had real eggs in so long." She said. She didn't know why she had said anything at all. Had she grown soft enough for small talk in such a short time? 

"As opposed to…?"

"Powdered." Nora made a face. "When I could find them."

Alex slid more eggs to her side of the plate. "All yours, kid."

Nora accepted even though they both knew it was more than she could ever hope to eat. The one good thing about this world, she thought, is the food. Not only was it fresh and amazing but it would never run out when most of it was bigger than she was. Everything might have sucked, but it sucked a lot less when she was eating bacon. She didn't even care that he had called her a kid or that he was watching her as he sipped his coffee.

"So, no smartphones, no eggs." He said, after a minute. "No offense but your world doesn't sound that great."

She laughed. "You're not wrong."

He didn't say anything else for a while but Nora could tell that he wanted to. She hoped it wasn't something that would spoil her good mood. She was full, she had slept like a rock-

Oh no.

Oh _no_.

Suddenly, Nora remembered her adventure last night. She had never made it back to the drawer. She had gotten stuck and had planned to wait for him to move again but she must have dozed off. She had woken up in the drawer, which meant-

"We need to talk about last night."

Was it possible to die of embarrassment? She wasn't sure but she thought she might find out. The more she thought about it, the more mortified she felt. He had obviously found her this morning, fast asleep in his bed. And, she remembered, not wearing anything but a t-shirt. What had she been thinking?

"You could have been killed." He said. " _I_ could have killed you. I know you think I don't give a shit but trust me, if I had-" He waved a huge hand and wrinkled his nose. "If there is one time that you actually listen to me... Don't do it again. Please."

Nora nodded but didn't say anything. What did she have to say? He was right. It had almost happened too. She hadn't thought of how he would have felt if he had woken up and found her smothered under a hand. Probably not great.

"I should close the drawer from now on." He grumbled. Nora's heart sank. "But… I won't if you promise you won't go exploring in the middle of the night."

She nodded again and accepted the scrap of paper towel he passed her. The more she thought about it, she couldn't believe how stupid she had been. How had she even expected to get back to the dresser from the pillow? What would she have done if he'd hurt her and she couldn't wake him up? And, for fuck's sake, why hadn't she put on her jeans? 

"I have some good news, at least." He offered, pulling her out of her self admonishment. 

"I get to go home?" 

"Very funny."

Nora shrugged. "Worth a shot."

"What?" He asked. "You'd still rather go back to powdered eggs?" 

Would she go back if she got the chance? Was this really so much worse than her world? It had its very obvious downsides but she had showered more since she got here than she had in months and while it wasn't a real shower, it was better than just rinsing off in the rain. She hadn't gone hungry for the first time in years. She got to sleep without worrying about getting jumped, robbed or worse. She even had company. Nora didn't want to admit it but she was getting used to him, to this, to not being alone. Even if he was a dick sometimes, he was still someone to talk to and, in his own way, he was looking out for her. There was nobody back home to care if she died. Sure, it was his job to care- or at least keep her alive- but when he'd told her off for her adventure, she thought he would have actually been upset if… 

He laughed, shaking her out of her thoughts. Literally. "After all the trouble you've given me about wanting to go back to your own world, you still had to think about it." 

"It's not like I can anyway, so who cares?" She snapped. 

Alex stood and cleared the plate from the table. "You, apparently."

She scowled but otherwise ignored his reply. "So, what's your _good news_ then? You're finally getting rid of me?"


	19. Chapter 19

"No. I'm not that lucky." Alex ignored the sound she made in response and continued. "My boss called. A coworker took my shift so I'm off for the next three days. No more sneaking you around."

That _was_ good news. At least now she wouldn’t have to be stuck in his pocket or on his desk. Or in his lap, she thought with a grimace. “Well, that’s a relief. Have you heard anything about when they’re coming to get me?” 

Alex shrugged. "Not yet. I'll check in today and see if they have an update." He dumped all of the dishes into the sink and reclaimed his seat. "Why? Afraid you're going to miss me?"

"Just as much as you'll miss me." Nora replied.

He grinned. “Touche. And don’t worry. It shouldn’t be too long now. Then you’ll have all the eggs your little heart desires and a kitchen your own size to eat them in.”

“Yeah, yeah.” She muttered. “I know. It’ll be great and I’ll love it there. You don’t have to sell me on somewhere I’m being forced to go.” 

He nudged her lightly with a finger. “Just wait and see. In a couple of months, you’re gonna call me up and admit that I was right.” 

Nora couldn’t help it. She should have been annoyed that he’d made her lose her balance with a casual brush of his hand but his good mood was infectious and it was hard not to match his grin. “Never.” 

“You will too. You’re going to say, ‘Oh, Alex. You were right all along. This place is amazing and I was wrong to have ever doubted you’.” 

“I do _not_ sound like that." She said, pushing his finger away with little effort and even less success. "So, what are we doing now that I’m not getting stuffed into your pocket?”

“Well, I’ve got nothing until later on. So what do you want to do?” 

"What do _I_ want to do?" She repeated. Why was he asking _her_? Was he teasing her? Since when did he care what she wanted to do? 

"Within reason." He looked serious enough but somehow, she couldn’t believe he wasn’t just messing with her.

Nora stared at him. "Are you messing with me?" 

Alex snorted. "Alright, short stuff, if you'd rather watch me do paperwork…"

Nora held up her hands. "No, no no no." She thought for a minute. Anything within reason, he’d said. That likely ruled out letting her leave so she tried to think of something else. But what else was there to do? Watch tv? Eat chocolate until she puked? While that all seemed nice, she was sure she could think of something better but it was hard. She wasn’t used to having free time that now, having so many choices was overwhelming. She was used to keeping herself busy, being outside. 

That was it, she realized. 

"Can I go outside?" She hadn’t really had a chance to see what this world looked like. Anything besides the barren wasteland that she had left behind was an improvement but she was still curious. 

"Okay. Sure. Why not?” He said after a moment. He lowered his hand and Nora was so surprised that it took her a moment to start moving. 

She climbed on and tried not to throw up her breakfast as he lifted her up. By now, she was… well, she wasn't used to being carried but it didn't terrify her as much anymore. Alex curled his fingers around her loosely, just enough so that she didn't feel like she would slide out of his hand, and it gave her something to brace against as she rose and fell with each of his steps. 

Nora still half believed that he was fucking with her when they reached the back door. Alex turned the lock but paused as he grabbed the doorknob. "Alright, no wandering off. Got it?"

"I'm not going to run away, relax." She rolled her eyes. 

"I know." His voice suggested otherwise but he continued. "I just don't want you to get eaten."

Alex laughed at the face she made and, once he was satisfied that she wouldn't do anything to end up as lunch, he opened the door. 

It was so… green. All she could do was stare for the longest time. She couldn't even remember a time when her world had been this lush, this alive. It was once, she knew, long before she was born. She half remembered it from pictures she saw as a little girl but the pictures didn't do it justice at all. The air, too, was different. It was clean. It smelled like rain and plants and life instead of chemicals and smoke. There were birds singing somewhere far above her in the towering trees. Living, singing, flying birds. She could see them flitting back and forth in the branches. 

For the first time, Nora was actually glad she had left her world. Not temporarily glad at having clean water or real food. No, she had gone from a dead shell of a world to _this_. Being shrunk was worth being able to see this, she thought. She wanted to stay out here forever.

But she was going to the city, she reminded herself. She would be inside forever. There would be no sun or birds or rain or grass there. 

-

The girl looked like she was going to cry. Or maybe laugh. Or both. He'd never seen someone so blown away by a crappy backyard. He'd meant to cut the grass… and maybe water it… but she didn't seem to mind. "You okay? Do you want to go back in?"

"No!" She said quickly. "I'm good. I just…" She trailed off, still mesmerized. Now he was getting curious.

"Did you not have a backyard where you lived?"

Nora laughed. "God, no."

"Trees? You had to have had trees at least."

"We had trees." She said. "Just not like these. They were all brown, even the leaves."

"That sounds boring." He sat down on the grass and felt the moisture from the dirt start to seep through his sweatpants but he didn't care. She was enjoying it and, to his surprise, he was happy that he'd made her happy. She'd obviously had a rough life before coming here. No backyards, no real eggs, no regular showers. He wondered if maybe she had been a runway. She looked young enough but it was hard to tell at her size. Well, if this is what made her happy then he'd deal with wet pants. She deserved something nice.

He wanted to pry about her life before but he didn't exactly know how to start. Plus, they were having a nice time. He didn't want to ruin it so instead, he tipped her out of his hand and into the grass. She hesitated at first but soon felt comfortable enough to take a few steps away from him. Still, every few paces, she looked back at him.

"So, what else didn't your place have?"

Her voice was getting harder to hear over the background noise and the distance. "Nothing good."

"Not one thing?" He asked. "There's gotta be at least one thing to make you want to go back so bad."

There was no reply for a few moments, then, "I was free."

He guessed she had a point but it wasn't like the city was a prison. "Look, it may not be the kind of freedom you're used to but when you're where you belong, you can do practically whatever you want. You could, I dunno, get a job, join a softball league… date."

"Can I go outside?" She asked. "See the trees? Feel the rain? Leave?" 

Alex sighed heavily. "And go where, Nora? You still want to go back to your shitty world? You want to be 'free' and wander around outside here? How long before you're a snack for a cat? Or stepped on trying to cross a sidewalk?" 

It came out harsher than he'd meant it to but it always came back to this with her. She needed to get it through her head that this was her world now and there was one place for her in it.


End file.
